Madaraka Express has continued bleeding numbers, shedding 2,082 passengers in the first three months of 2025, marking another downward trend for the Standard Gauge Railway service.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) latest Leading Economic Indicators report, passengers across January, February, and March were 529,591, a drop compared to 531,673 passengers in 2024.
In January, SGR recorded 188,238 passengers, down from 192,376 passengers in the previous year. February saw an upturn, with the rail service having 168,897 passengers, up from 158,652 in the previous year.
In March, SGR saw a drop in passengers, having 172,456 commuters in 2025 compared to 180,645 passengers in the previous year.
While KNBS did not explicitly reveal the cause for the decline, the dip could be linked to a hike in passenger fare enacted in January 2024, as SGR saw increased revenues during the same period under review.
During the first three months of the year, SGR’s revenues stood at Ksh936,299,658. This was an increase from Ksh880,819,035 during the same period in the previous year.
The rail service saw a rise in revenues in all but one month this year, with January recording Ksh342,132,052, compared to Ksh312,443,190 in 2024. As for February, the figures collected stood at Ksh299,565,562, up from Ksh270,396,935.
As for March, the revenues dipped, collecting Ksh294,602,044, down from Ksh297,978,910 in the same month of the previous year.
The trend of SGR having a dip in passengers but increasing revenues was observed in the entirety of last year. Passengers using SGR dropped by 282,000 in 2024 compared to 2023, according to KNBS data.
In 2024, a total of 2,447,000 passengers used the SGR, a drop from the 2,729,000 who used the service in the previous year.
The decline, which represented a 10.3 per cent drop, came against a 50 per cent fare hike introduced at the start of the year.
On a broader scale, passengers using SGR have experienced a gradual drop in the first quarter of each year since 2023. In 2023, Q1 passengers stood at 597,500, decreasing the following year to 531,700, dropping by 11 per cent.
Aside from the high fares, passengers have lamented about the reduced quality of service at different rail stations. Also, focus has been drawn on the laxity by SGR officials in booking and allocation of seats.
