Kenya Railways adds third train on Nairobi-Mombasa route
Kenya Railways has revised its newly introduced Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) train schedule on the Nairobi – Mombasa route.
The parastatal has also added another train on this busy 500km route in a move aimed at absorbing the high human traffic brought about by the back to school and work season.
The move comes days after Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia earlier announced an elaborate plan to facilitate the movement of learners as schools reopened earlier this week.
“For as long as one has their ticket, there shouldn’t be a challenge in connecting. For Nairobi, we have no challenge as we have a commuter train which will bring passengers into the Central Business District (CBD) at around 4am,” it says.
On Monday, the corporation introduced two new Madaraka Express commuter rail services on the route ahead of schools reopening.
In a notice, the rail transport regulator said two trains would depart from Nairobi and Mombasa termini concurrently at 9pm stopping at each of the seven intermediate stages in the six-hour journey.
On Thursday, Kenya Railways released a new schedule that will have three commuter rail services.
The new schedule will have two express trains, one during the day and another at night, while the third one will be an inter-county one.
The inter-county train will depart at the Nairobi terminus at 8am and make its first stopover at Athi River, then proceed to Emali then Kibwezi, Mtito Andei, Voi, Miasenyi then Mariakani before arriving at its destination at Mombasa terminus at 2pm.
The Express train will leave Nairobi terminus at 3:15 and arrive at the Mombasa terminus at 8:08, while the night train will depart Nairobi at 10pm and arrive in Mombasa at 3:30 am.
The corporation says that it has sought for and received exemption allowing for passengers to disembark from stations under curfew hours to other destinations as long as one has the proof of ticketing.