The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio has said the Abuja-Kaduna train service has dropped drastically to a point that a bicycle or a commercial tricycle, better known as Keke Napep, is faster than the train.
Akpabio delivered his verdict on Thursday as senators reviewed falling rail services in the country, particularly the popular Abuja-Kaduna-Kano line.
An Ad-hocCommittee on Holistic Investigation into the Railway System in Nigeria, which the Senate set up in November 2025, was immediately inaugurated by Akpabio to probe rail services in the country within six weeks.
The committee is chaired by former governor of Edo State, Senator Adams Oshiomhole.
“If you are using a bicycle, you will get to Kaduna faster than the train. We gather that even Keke Napep will get to Kaduna faster than the train”, Akpabio said, stressing that from a time of about one and a half hours from Abuja to Kaduna when the service started, passengers now spent over three hours on the line.
He was re-echoing Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi-Central), who rose under personal explanation to bring the current poor state of the rail service to the attention of the Senate.
Ningi recalled his recent experience when he took the train service to Kaduna, lamenting that passengers spent over three and half hours as they were left with no options.
He narrated his experience and findings, “From 2015, the railway started commuting 10 tranches of movement, five from Abuja to Kaduna and five from Kaduna to Abuja. And my investigation told me, when they started commuting, they were commuting 10,000 passengers a day.
“Last two weeks, I visited Kaduna like I used to visit Kaduna with the railway and what I found and discovered was simply a tragic Nigerian story. I met the manager, and he rendered these statistics to me.
“First, he told me they were commuting 10,000 passengers and because of the terrible nature of Kaduna-Abuja road, most people come from Kaduna and work and travel back to Kaduna. The 10,000 passengers they were doing a day was reduced to about 800 to 900.
“The 10 shuttling they were doing a day was reduced, Mr President, to two times a day. And I was made aware that while the railway was working in full capacity, they were of course creating a revenue of N1.8 billion monthly.”
Ningi, who stated that there was only one-trip service at the moment (7am to Kaduna) and (1.30pm to Abuja), alleged that there was information that equipment installed during the execution of the rail contract were “second-hand”, leaving Nigeria apparently short-changed.
He added, “When the railway started, it was one and a half hours to Kaduna. Last week when I went, we spent three and a half hours. It was moving at a slow speed, and therefore people had no alternatives.
“Mr President, this is very disturbing. It will not only disturb me, it must disturb this Senate and Nigerians that as it looks, nobody is ready to do anything about it.”
The administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Abuja-Kaduna train service in 20216 after the completion of the estimated $1.64billion contract.
It was first started by the administration of the late President Umar Yar’Adua and inherited by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan before Buhari eventually inaugurated it.
The 186.5 km standard gauge double-track line was built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), partially financed by a $500 million loan from China’s Exim Bank with the balance from the Federal Government, according to available records.
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