Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) has announced new fares on its Kaduna-Abuja route with effect from Monday.

The 60 per cent hike, which came into effect from Feb. 6, took many passengers by surprise.

NRC officials were seen handing over the list containing the new fares to passengers at the Rigasa station in Kaduna on Monday morning.

The list, on the corporation’s letter-headed paper, which was unsigned, contained details of amounts for tickets from the Rigasa station in Kaduna to Idu station in Abuja, including other sub stations along the route.

Passengers will now pay N1,050 as against N600 for a standard ticket, and N1,500 instead of the N900 being paid for an executive seat from Rigasa to Idu.

The document, written in English, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa, indicated that the increase was “slight” and was to enable the corporation enhance services for the comfort of passengers.

A passenger at the Rigasa station, Mukhtar Bello described the hike in fares as a “surprise”, and expressed the hope that the trend would not continue.

“Passengers are heavily patronising this service because it is cheap and affordable. With this increase, there is no much difference with what one pays to board taxis and buses to Abuja, I hope this would not draw away passengers from here.”

Grace Adegbite, NRC spokesperson Northern District, declined comment on the increase, saying she had just resumed from leave. The Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge line came into operation on July 26, 2016.

NAN