The Federal Government (FG), has stated that the train services between Abuja and Kaduna will resume on Monday, December 5, 2022.
Mua’zu Sambo, the minister of transportation, made this disclosure on Sunday, November 27, 2022, while inspecting and testing the train route.
Sambo had earlier said operations would resume this month (November).
However, the continued delay in resumption sparked speculation that the train services would recommence on Monday.
Ruling out the possibility that the the Abuja-Kaduna train service would resume on Monday, November 28, 2022, Sambo said the service would rather commence in the next seven days.
Sambo explained that this was done to help passengers adjust to the new requirements for boarding the train.
“The issue of whether the train will start tomorrow or not, we have not said the train services will start tomorrow. I want to be very categorical about that,” he said.
“Now, we have introduced a new system before you buy a ticket.
“Your purchase of a ticket requires you to provide a phone number and a national identification number in order to profile, because that is the beginning of the security checks.
“So, at any point in time when a train moves from one station to another, we know who and who is on board.
“If you don’t have a national identification number (NIN) you are not going to board our train. It is as simple as that.
“If you are a minor, an adult will pay for you and will register for you and an adult can only register for not more than four minors.”
Sambo also stated that the public should be kept up to date on new developments before operations begin.
“Now, we want to give sufficient time for the Nigerian public to listen to these and assimilate this new system because if we start tomorrow, a lot of people will be disgruntled,” he said.
“Definitely between three, four, five days, certainly not more than a week.”
The minister also assured Nigerians that their plans are 90% complete, adding that the remaining 10% of measures “would be achieved in a couple of days for full resumption of train services.”
He went on to say that one concrete measure that is feasible is ticketing.
“Security starts from ticketing. So now, you don’t buy a ticket unless you have a valid phone number and you have a NIN,” Sambo said.
“And if you are a foreigner, you also have a means of identification you can use which is produced by the National Identity Management Commission.
“Having secured your ticket, you will not get access to the lounge until the machine reads the barcode in your receipt.
“Your details will show and your complete profile will show on the screen. Only then will you be allowed to go into the lounge. This is what we call customer profiling.”
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