Kenyans will pay more to travel between Nairobi and Mombasa using the Standard Gauge Railway train as the government plans to almost double fares.
Kenya Railways said yesterday that it plans to increase the amount that passengers pay when travelling using the SGR passenger service dubbed Madaraka Express to make it sustainable.
The state-run agency said it plans to increase fares to Sh1,200 for a one-way ticket on economy class, which is nearly double the current rate of Sh700. However, passengers travelling on first class will continue paying the current rates of Sh3,000. This is even as the cargo service struggles to attract clients to use the train to move goods.
Subsidised
The planned upward revision of SGR fare is the latest in the reversal of goodies offered by the government last year in the run up to the 2017 elections. Other key items that had been subsidised but prices are now back to normal levels include maize, sugar and milk powder.
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The Madaraka Express service has become popular with many Kenyans travelling between the capital and the port city and has ferrid 800,000 passengers between June last year when it started operations and January this year.
Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina said the higher charges would enable the railway to run sustainably, but added they are subject to approval by the Transport Cabinet Secretary.
He added that Sh700 fare was an introductory offer and aimed at getting Kenyans to experience the service, with expectations that they would buy-in and subsequently use the service even with higher fares.
“The current fares especially the economy class fares were introductory or promotional as is conventional in any new business. Importantly, the Government made a deliberate decision to charge low fare to allow Kenyans from all walks of life to test the service at inception stage so they can judge for themselves the nature of the product we were introducing to the market,” said Mr Maina.
“We shall be announcing the rates once approved but will not exceed Sh1,200. We are making many adjustments in our service offering and we believe that this adjustment will allow us to improve on customer experience in a sustainable manner.”
Other than being promotional, the low fare is also linked to the 2017 election campaign and was implemented following a directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta in May last year.
Addition to taxi
The move is likely to make the service lose its competitive edge. The higher fare will be in addition to inadequate last mile connections, with passengers having a difficult time connecting to the railway stations.
The Nairobi South Station is situated in Syokimau, more than 10 kilometres from the Central Business District while the service to Mombasa terminates at Port Reitz, also more than 10 kilometres from Mombasa town.
The Sh1,200 will thus be in addition to taxi or matatu fare that passengers incur to access the SGR termini.
It is also in comparison to between Sh900 and Sh1,500 that they would pay while travelling on a bus and terminate their journey at the respective CBDs.
The railway, however, has the competitive edge of moving between the two cities in about five hours while buses take eight hours on average.
