By SHIKTRA SHALANGWA, Abuja

The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) says it generated N3.09 billion in the year 2019 from train service operations nationwide with N1.5 billion generated from the Abuja-Kaduna rail service.

The Managing Director of NRC, Engineer Fidet Okhiria, who disclosed this, said the Abuja-Kaduna rail line generated about N130 million monthly revenue in 2019 as against the N80 million generated in the previous year noting that the rail line has been able to break even.

He further said that the money generated from the Abuja-Kaduna rail service was used to service other stations in the North, like the Maiduguri stations which is not functional at the moment because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Abuja - Kaduna railway generated over N130 million monthly revenue, with N90 million spent on running cost and payment of staff at the Maiduguri stations which could not operate for now due to insecurity in the state.

“As at 2019 train operations nationwide generated is about N3.09 billion and we are targeting about N6billion when Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri comes on board,” he said.

The NRC boss, however, said with the reduction of passengers from 80 passengers to 40 passengers per coach, would definitely affect the revenue generated for the year 2020, except if the hourly train is properly implemented. (VON)