Starting today, passengers traveling on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) between Nairobi to Mombasa will be able to purchase tickets using their cellphones.
The new mode of payment will see passengers using a text message system to make purchases.
The Kenya Railways introduced the new system to combat illegal brokering of tickets by middlemen, who had made accessibility of tickets a nightmare as they would inflate the prices.
The new system is user-friendly, just by dialing *639# and following a series of prompts, one is able to buy tickets to any terminus along the SGR route.
“We are seeking to leverage the technology offered by the new platform to counter the secondary market of tickets by middlemen who have taken advantage of the use of the stations as the main source of tickets,” said Kenya Railways (KR) Managing Director Atanas Maina yesterday.
Commuters can use Mpesa to make the payment for the tickets via the SMS-based USSD code.
“Through the platform, we hope to make it more convenient for Kenyans seeking to travel to plan their journey in advance and make bookings on time. The system will also require those making bookings to provide their names and national identity card number except for minors.”