The government has announced new schedules for trains operating on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) effective August 1.
Both the Inter-County and Express trains timings have been changed with Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) stating: "Effective August 1, Kenya Railways will revise the train schedule for the Mombasa to Nairobi services, revision is aimed at improving the performance.”
The express train will leave the Nairobi terminus at 2:35 pm with an estimated arrival time in Mombasa at 7:18 pm while the one from Mombasa will depart at 3:15 pm to arrive in Nairobi at 8:14 pm.
The Inter-county train will leave Nairobi at 8:20 am and its estimated arrival time in Mombasa is 2:18 pm while the other one departing from Mombasa will leave at 8:00 am with an arrival time of 1:42 pm in the Nairobi terminus.
[caption caption="SGR passenger train"]
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The Inter-County train makes five-minute stopovers at Mariakani, Miasenyi, Voi, Mtito-Andei, Kibwezi, Emali and Athi- River.
It is important to note that the rates to use the train will remain Kshs.1000 for economy class tickets to and fro Mombasa. First class passengers pay Kshs.3000.
The charges were effected in May following the lapse of the promotional tariffs President Uhuru Kenyatta announced during the launch of the train in 2017.
Later that month, the parastatal announced that it would review the promotional tariff for its SGR freight service upwards with the increased charges, changes that were effected early July.
The promotional tariff was introduced in January as the government sought to woo traders and transporters to use the train.
“We are working together with the Kenya Shippers Council and cargo owners to see how best we can adjust these rates. We cannot talk about the margins at this moment but all we know is that it will be in the best interest of the market,” Kenya Railways business, commercial and operations team leader James Siele stated.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta inspecting a section of the SGR"]
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