On Nigerian trains, passengers are like refugees (2)

nside an economy class coach on the Lagos-Kano route
| credits: Temitayo Famutimi

In this concluding part, TEMITAYO FAMUTIMI reveals that the Nigerian railway system is still bedevilled by old equipment and ill-motivated employees

In spite of the much touted successes of the Federal Government in reviving the hitherto ailing Nigeria Railway Corporation, the majority of the passenger coaches are old, giving travellers little or no comfort.

Investigations by our correspondent revealed that some of the coaches in use are actually decades old.  In fact, the first-class coach which this journalist boarded from Lagos to Ilorin, Kwara State, on February 7, was the one previously used to ply the Omi-Adio to Bodija intra-city mass transit in Ibadan, Oyo State, in the early ’90s.

NRC Assistant Director, Public Relations, Mr. David Ndakotsu, corroborates our correspondent’s findings as he notes that some of the coaches are indeed as old as 20 years.

Shameful facilities

“Yes, we have coaches that are about 20 years old. But we don’t have any coach that is older than that,” Ndakotsu tells our correspondent.

As expected, the majority of the factory-fitted facilities on many of the coaches have broken down, leaving the corporation with no options other than to improvise.

For instance, the air conditioner, which is the only luxury available to passengers on the first-class coach this journalist travelled in, could not be enjoyed. It has packed up; while the two make-shift split ACs hung on the walls of the coach adjacent to each other only blew raw air without any cooling effect.

“The Nigeria Railway Corporation could do better than this, though. It is already over one year since it began the inter-city rail transport operations but things don’t seem to have progressed,” Sunday Oyeniran, a passenger on the first class coach, laments.

Oyeniran, who was travelling from the Iddo Terminus in Lagos to Inisha, Osun State, regrets paying an extra 60 per cent over the regular N560 fare for the economy class.

“I haven’t enjoyed the extra N340 I paid for this first-class ride. The coach is as good as not having an air conditioner,” he laments as he wipes off the sweat on his face.

A visit to the seven other coaches on the train, which was economy class, also reveals the harrowing experience of the second-rated travellers.

The population of passengers on each of the economy class coaches far outweighs those on the first-class facility. While the single class coach seats only 60 passengers, each of the seven economy coaches has 90 seats.

But the economy facilities are usually crowded, as they are the coaches where railway officials cramp travellers whenever they carry passengers more than the train’s sitting capacity.

Apart from the overcrowding the majority of the overhead fans were not functional.

Harvest of dust

On one of the economy coaches, only two of the fans were working, forcing travellers to throw open the windows of the coaches to forestall suffocation.

But the travellers’ self-help discretion also comes with its disadvantages. As the Ilorin-bound train covered distances, specks of dust from the countryside soon took over the coaches, with many passengers forced to cover their noses in a bid to stave off the dust.

Frequent travellers came prepared for the challenge, as a handful of them were seen putting on face masks. However, the first timers were at the mercy of the dust.

“I wear face mask not only for preventing dust but to also contain the offensive odour emanating from toilets,” a middle-aged man who declines to give his name says.

The state of many of the toilets and bathrooms on the coaches are nauseating, to say the least. Apart from their dirty state, some of them have their doors damaged, depriving users any form of privacy.

Even the booking terminal at the Offa Station was in a derelict state, as it lacks basic aesthetics. The majority of th­e stations also have no loudspeakers to communicate with passengers, while some of the stations are usually thrown into darkness at night as they have long been disconnected from the national grid.

Suffering and smiling

Mrs. Esther Ademola joins the train at the Abeokuta Station en route Osogbo, the Osun State capital — one of the stopovers on the Lagos-Ilorin route.

The woman in her 50s and her aged husband were returning home after a visit to one of their children in Abeokuta.

The coaches were filled to the brim, as the train, which took off at the Iddo Terminus, Lagos, had picked up extra passengers at the Agege and Ijoko stations before getting to Abeokuta.

Ademola was boxed in the far right corner of the small compartment in-between the first class and the seventh economy class coach. She sat on her luggage.

“We were lucky that my aged husband was able to get a seat. A Good Samaritan gave up his seat for him. At least, I was also able to get this space to rest my legs,” Ademola says.

One of her regrets, though, is the intensive itching she experiences on her skin as a result of the overcrowding.

She says, “As you can see, the windows are always open because of heat, while the glass covering of the entrance is damaged. This makes dust and other elements such as dry leaves to find their way into the coaches.

“Sometimes, the wind blows the devil’s bean plant into the coach. When this happens, passengers virtually run berserk, as they are forced to scratch their bodies due to the burning effects of the devil bean plant!”

She says she has continued to travel by rail simply because it is cheaper than other means of transportation.

“We paid N350 each for our trip from Abeokuta to Osogbo. If it were to be by road, we would have to pay nothing less than N1,200 per head.”

Students embrace trains

 (2)