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The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has increased the ticket fare for Abuja-Kaduna route.
The new regime took effect on Monday.
Executive Class ticket now sells for N1,500 one way as against N900 it previously sold while the Standard Class has jumped from N600 to N1050.
Mr. Pascal A Nnorli, the NRC Liaison Officer in Abuja, told Daily Trust on phone last night that the new price regime was decided at the time fuel price moved to N145 from N87 per litre.
He said the old fare template was benchmarked when bus fare from Abuja to Kaduna was based on N87 per litre fuel.
He further said that when fuel price increased from N87 to N145, the NRC also had to review its price template and still benchmarked it with the bus fare as currently charged from Abuja to Kaduna.
He however noted that at the point the train service was launched on July 26, 2016, fuel was N145 and road fares had already gone up.
“But because we had already advertised the old fare (N600 for economy and N900 for executive class), we felt it would be unwise to launch with a different fare. So we launched with the old fare but said after 6 months, we will review the fare to what has been effected” he said adding that the NRC got the approval for the new fare about six months ago.
NRC Managing Director, Engr. Fidet Okhiria in an interview with our correspondent last year said NRC get’s an average of N15 million a month but that was low compared with how much they spend to maintain their operations.