Despite the partial compliance with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) strike in Lagos, the train services in the nation’s commercial capital and other rail services across the country recorded total shutdown, resulting in losses
Daily Trust reports that the railway workers’ unions including the Nigerian Union of Railway Workers (NUR) and the Senior Staff Association (SSA) complied fully with the NRC directive stay away from work.
Our correspondent who was at Babatunde Raji Fashola Train station Agege on Wednesday morning observed that the station was deserted.
Some passengers who came in to board the new Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge train were turned back.
“We are not operating because of the strike. You know this is a Federal government agency. We didn’t operate today (Wednesday) and yesterday (Tuesday) in compliance with the NLC directive, ” a security guard told our correspondent.
The strike was coming a few weeks after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the rail transportation data indicating that the NRC revenue in the first quarter of 2023 slumped by 63.02 per cent.
“The rail transportation data for Q1 2023 showed that a total of 441,725 passengers travelled via the rail system in Q1 2023, lower than the 953,099 reported in the corresponding quarter of 2022, representing a growth rate of -53.65%,” the report said.
But the corporation lost millions of naira when it suspended services across its systems due to the NLC strike for two days.
Apart from the Lagos-Ibadan Train Services, the NRC also operates Mass Transit Train (MTT) between Lagos and Ogun as well as the Abuja-KadunaTrain Services.
Spokesperson of the NRC, Mr. Mahmoud Yakubu in a chat with our correspondent said the train service would resume on Wednesday.
He described the losses recorded by the NRC for the two days as huge.
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