The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) claimed that the increase in the price of automobile gas oil, sometimes known as diesel, was the reason for the decrease in train journeys between Lagos and Ibadan.
According to NRC Managing Director Fidet Okhiria, the company has reduced the number of daily return trips on the route from six to two.
Why this is happening
At N800 per litre, diesel has increased by 28% from the previous 625/litre price in March.
Despite the increased cost of operations, Okhiria highlighted that the company was not permitted to increase fares; yet, the need to do so was necessitated by economic realities.
He claimed that in order to change the train fare, NRC requested the federal ministry of transportation’s approval.
What He said
“The Lagos-Ibadan train service is running, but we have reduced the number of trips on that route because of the diesel problem. We reduced the number of trips we are running because of the hike in diesel price,” Okhiria said in an interview.
We are now doing two return trips as against six, which by now should have gone to 10. So, we run just two trips now due to the diesel problem.”
“We just can’t increase it by ourselves. The government has to do that. We have made some recommendations. But even with the recommendations we made, the new price of diesel has overshot our workings as contained in the recommendations.