Nairobi News

Kenya Railways has introduced a new inter-county Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) train that will be available at night in the Nairobi – Mombasa route.

According to Kenya Railways, two new Madaraka Express trains will be added to the normal commuter rail service in the route due to increased demand following the reopening of schools.

According to the KR notice, the two trains will be leaving both the Nairobi and Mombasa termini at 9pm stopping at each of the seven intermediate stages in the six-hour journey.

However, Kenya Railways did not specify for how long the new service will be in use.

According to Kenya Railways Managing Director Philip Mainga SGR passengers will be exempted from the nationwide 10pm-4am curfew aimed at curbing the spread of the Coronavirus in the country.
“Passengers will just need to produce their tickets when asked by the law enforcers. Police officers already know there is a night train so they are aware passengers will be alighting at different stopovers,” Mr Mainga said.

Passengers arriving at their destinations during the curfew hours can use available taxi services which have been listed as essential service providers and can operate within the curfew hours.

On Sunday, Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia announced an elaborate plan to facilitate movement of learners as schools reopened on Monday.

The plan includes enhancing train schedules to ease pressure on public transport as learners travel back to school with additional trains to be added to Nairobi- Mombasa from Monday.

This is in addition to Kenya Railways also making available additional commuter service trains within the Nairobi Metropolitan area.

“We want to make sure that the movement of children to school is seamless and that is why we must have more trains. We are urging matatu operators to cooperate,” said Mr Macharia.

At the same time, the State corporation has introduced a back-to-school Nanyuki safari train that will operate the Nairobi-Nanyuki route from Monday.

The train will be leaving both stations at 9am with stops at Thika, Mitubiri, Makuyu, Maragua, Murang’a, Sagana, Karatina, Kigango and Naro Moru.

For the service, passengers will part with Sh200 for the economy class and Sh1,000 for the business class with the commuters able to buy their tickets either at stations or inside the train.

The two trains will operate between January 4 and 5 to ease the burden on thousands of pupils and students going back to school.

Mr Macharia added that 1,500 learners and parents will be ferried through the Nairobi-Nanyuki refurbished railway line.