Kenya Railways has introduced a midnight train from Nairobi to Mombasa and vice versa in a bid to offer an alternative to students who are reopening schools.
In a statement, Kenya Railways said that it held a multi-level agency meeting on Sunday to deliberate on how best train services would facilitate the re-opening of schools.
“Following today’s multi-agency briefing on re-opening of schools, we will provide an additional Inter-county train in the evening between Mombasa and Nairobi,” the corporation said in a statement.
The train will leave the SGR terminus in Syokimau at 9 pm and make stops in Athi River, Emali, Kibwezi, Mtito Andei, Voi, Maiseny and Mariakani train stations where it will spend three minutes before proceeding with the journey.
It is scheduled to arrive in Mombasa at 3 am.
Transport CS James Macharia had also said that as a government, Kenya Railways had an approval to double the capacity of its inter-county trains.
This he said, was to ease the burden on road transport for thousands of students resume school after a nine-month hiatus due to COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tomorrow (Monday) we shall double the capacity for our inter-county trains. Normally we have one train daily coming to Nairobi from Mombasa, and another going to Mombasa from Nairobi. We have, however, agreed that there will be two trains coming from Mombasa and the same number going to Mombasa. Tomorrow, trains will be dropping our children in the counties along the Mombasa-Nairobi route,” Macharia said.
Kenya Railways will also have another train ply the Mt Kenya route – Nanyuki to Nairobi – to ease the logistical nightmare for students and their parents who may be accompanying them back to school.
The intracity rail commuter service also resumed operations on Monday with 20 trains on route.
It is estimated that a total of 60,000 passengers will be shuttled to various destinations within the Nairobi Metropolitan.
