SGR passengers to pay Sh900 on Nairobi - Mombasa route

A train crew attends to guests during a test ride on the Standard Gauge Railway. Photo: Boniface Okendo

Three passenger trains will run daily between Nairobi and Mombasa as the State pushes to give the standard gauge railway, set to be launched on May 31, the numbers it needs to be economically viable.

Two of the trains, one from Mombasa and the other from Nairobi, will run a daily express service between the two cities. The third train will be an inter-county one that will make stops subject to passenger availability at the stations along the line.

The tickets will be electronic, enabling the personnel running the inter-county train to schedule the stops.

There are seven main stations on the line and more than 30 smaller ones which the Government says will benefit local residents.

This is meant to make SGR competitive against buses plying the Nairobi-Mombasa route. “The three trains will run daily for the first three years but if there is a need to add others, we will do so according to capacity. As the urban centres along the SGR grow, then the hinterlands around them will get a ripple effect,” Transport Principal Secretary Paul Mwangi said.

He was speaking Monday during the launching of the social responsibility report of the China Communications Construction Company, the project contractor. The firm announced that Sh27 billion was spent on community projects along the line.

Mr Mwangi also said 45,000 Kenyans gained from skills transfer in modern railway building techniques while 934 local companies provided materials for the project.

Cabinet secretaries from the 13 ministries involved in the project were holed up in a meeting for the better part of Monday to iron out last-minute details before flying to Mombasa ahead of the flagging off of a cargo train from the coastal city Tuesday morning.

Maiden ride

The cargo train will be offloaded Wednesday at the inland container terminal in Nairobi.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, accompanied by all the Cabinet secretaries, some MPs, a Chinese delegation, and 1,200 students from schools representing Kenya’s 47 counties, will take the maiden ride.

The train will leave Mombasa at 8am, making stops at the seven main stations for commissioning before arriving in Nairobi at 4pm. The SGR daily passenger capacity will be 3,600 or about 70 buses.

Tickets from Mombasa to Nairobi will cost Sh900 for economy class, five times lower than the Sh4,500 proposed in a feasibility study. Buses on the route charge about Sh1,200 for economy, Sh1,800 for VIP, and Sh2,300 for business class.

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