Nairobi News

Hustle

Why rescheduling your SGR trip will cost more


Kenya Railways Corporation (KR) has reinstated a service that allows passengers travelling on the standard gauge railway (SGR) train between Nairobi and Mombasa to rescheduled their paid-for journeys.

However, the Corporation has increased the cost of the service in the penalties that a traveller will pay in order to travel at a later date.

KR said that passengers cancelling their booked trips would be deducted 30 per cent of the fares up from the previous 20 per cent.

“Rescheduling attracts a fee of 10 percent of the ticket price while refunding a fee of 30 percent of the ticket price. It should be done between 48 – 72 hours before the time of travel for individual and group bookings respectively,” Tweeted KR.

The agency further added that the services are done over the counter and require the customer to carry their original ID or Passport.

An economy class ticket on the Nairobi-Mombasa route costs Sh1,000 while a first-class ticket goes for Sh3,000. This means those cancelling trips will part with between Sh300 and Sh900.

In February, the Corporation stopped rescheduling of travel time after police unravelled a cartel operating an SGR ticket scandal. Three Chinese officials and four Kenyans were arrested.

The arrests were made by sleuths from the office of the Director of Criminal Investigation after the Chinese officials attempted to bribe the detectives with Sh500,000 to stop the investigations.

At the time, the Mombasa Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) boss George Ojowi revealed that all the seven were employees of the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) that manages the SGR.

Sources further claimed that approximately Sh1 million of SGR ticket money was stolen daily by the cartels.

One of the avenues used by the cartels involves deliberate manipulation of the booking system to get access to the revenues.

“The scheme also involves creating refunds for tickets already sold and issued to passengers on board and diverting the refunds elsewhere,” said the sleuths then.

Since launch, the trains have been departing daily from both directions, offering a four-and-a-half-hour non-stop connection between the country’s two major cities.