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By Abdulwaheed Olayinka Adubi
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), has disclosed its readiness to increase the ticket fares for the Lagos-Ibadan route due to challenges in the procurement of diesel and the rising cost of operations.
The Corporation further explained that proposed hike in fares is outside its control and as such would require authorization from the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director of NRC, Fidet Okhiria, during an interview recently, where he also said that the Corporation has cut down the number of return trips on the route from 6 to 2 every day due to the hike in the price of diesel.
Okhiria, however, noted that the NRC does not want to price itself out of the market as they are competing with other road transporters who use petrol, which is not increasing at the same rate as diesel.
Okhiria during the chat said, “The Lagos-Ibadan train service is running, but we have reduced the number of trips on that route because of the diesel problem. We reduced the number of trips we are running because of the hike in diesel price.
“We are now doing two return trips as against six, which by now should have gone to 10. So we run just two trips now due to the diesel problem.”
On whether the corporation would raise the price of train tickets, the NRC boss added, “We just can’t increase it by ourselves. The government has to do that. We have made some recommendations. But even with the recommendations we made, the new price of diesel has overshot our workings as contained in the recommendations.
“However, we don’t want to price ourselves out of the market too, because the price of petrol is not increasing as such, rather the increase is little when compared to diesel price. And you know we are competing with transporters on roads.’’