Madaraka express. [Photo/allafrica.com]
Kenya Railways has launched a second trip for the Madaraka Express passenger service. The trip is expected to start from November 1 and will see an afternoon trip introduced the service with a train leaving both Mombasa and Nairobi at 3:30 pm.
The introduction of a second trip is expected to revise the current train schedule, with the morning inter-county train departing Mombasa and Nairobi stations at 8:00 am and making a stop-over at each of the seven intermediate stations along the Mombasa-Nairobi stretch of the Standard Gauge Railway project during the morning trip. The stations include Athi River, Emali, Kibwezi, Mtito Andei, Voi, Miasenyi and Emali.
The inter-county train service is to ensure that residents of the counties along the project’s corridor are able to utilize our services in the morning. There will be an express train with no stoppage at any of the intermediate stations in the afternoon.
The Madaraka Express passenger service has transported approximately 330,000 passengers in its five months of operation.
The corporation has also been testing its freight services that will commence in 2018. The government has used the service to transport relief food from the Port of Mombasa to the inland container depot which has seen 120,000 tons of cereals transported to-date. The testing phase for commercial cargo is set to commence next month.