The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has announced a drop in the number of passengers who used the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in September.
KNBS, in its Leading Economic Indicators report released on November 15, disclosed that the number of passengers travelling by SGR declined by 105,782 from 281,683 in August to 175,901 in September 2024.
The significant decline in the number of passengers resulted in a drop in the revenue by Ksh144 million from Ksh440.6 million to Ksh296.4 million during the same period.
Overall, the government parastatal recorded a drop of 171,803 in the number of passengers between January and September this year compared to the same period last year when SGR recorded 1,779,134 passengers who used the services.
According to the report, July recorded the best-performing month with a passenger count of 192,768, closely followed by January, which recorded 192,376 passengers.
July emerged as the best month because more travellers embraced the train service due to its reliability, convenience, and affordability. Others also embraced it due to its ability to carry heavy loads at high speed as opposed to the Meter Gauge Railway (MGR).
Additionally, the months of February, April, May, and September recorded the lowest number of passengers who used the train, thus derailing the overall performance.
Despite the drop in the number of passengers, SGR recorded a hike in revenue by Ksh770 million between January and September this year compared to the same period last year when the company recorded Ksh2,135,375,546 in revenue.
The months of April, July, and August recorded the highest revenue figures at Ksh385,335,205, Ksh319,120,339, and Ksh440,588,930. However, the months of February and May recorded the worst revenue collection.
Meanwhile, the volume of cargo transported via the SGR decreased from 582,000 metric tons to 512.500 metric tons between August and September. However, revenue from cargo transport slightly increased to Ksh1.2 billion during the same period.
The latest report comes hardly three months after the KNBS released the SGR's semi-annual performance report. According to the report released on September 24, SGR recorded a 121,000 passenger drop between January and June this year compared to the corresponding period in 2023.
The month of January recorded the best performance after reporting a passenger count of 192,376. The months of February, April, and May recorded the least number of passengers.
