A Kaduna-bound passenger train was delayed for two hours in Abuja on Friday.
Some of the passengers who spoke with our correspondents said the delay resulted in their late arrival to their destinations.
Passengers are expected to be seated on the train before 6:00 PM as the train usually starts the journey to Kaduna via the Kubwa sub-station at the scheduled time.
Passengers who had already bought their tickets and had boarded the train however noticed that the train remained at one place even well after the scheduled time for take-off.
The passengers complained that they were kept waiting without any official explanation and many of them even got down to stretch when they couldn’t bear sitting down and waiting indefinitely.
Another passenger said the train was so late that they met the Abuja- bound- train from Kaduna at the Kubwa substation when under normal circumstances the train is supposed to wait for them at any of the sub-stations midway between Abuja and Kaduna.
He said they got to Kaduna some few minutes to 10:PM instead of 8: 30 PM as the train did not make any other stop over on the way.
He said most of them found it difficult making arrangements for transportation to their various destinations due to the late time of arrival.
Operations manager of the Abuja-Kaduna train service, Mr. Victor Adamu, when contacted said the delay was less than two hours and it was based on a technical glitch.
“We had a technical issue with the train which had to be attended to and announcement was made across to all passengers accordingly. The delay was not up to 2 hrs as reported” he said in his reply to our correspondent via SMS.
He also denied the train was delayed because it was waiting for the Minister of Sports.
“There was no any minister of sports on that train. Not to my knowledge” he said in the SMS.
The Manager, Abuja-Kaduna, Train Service, Mr. Pascal Nnorli, also said the delay was purely on technical issues.
“When I got that same report from concerned Nigerians, I inquired and was told that the Rigasa resident train which was to work as AK7 train of yesterday had a fault and needed to be attended to at Idu, where there is workshop and experienced technicians,” he explained.
He said he was in Lagos on official engagement, but that he would investigate the incidence further.
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