Kenya Railways Corporation on Thursday, March 4, announced a planned delay in one of their trains due to an incident that occurred on Mutindwa, Kiambu County.
The railway transport provider did not divulge more details regarding the incident in their statement.
"Good evening our esteemed customer, we regret to inform you that due to a locomotive incident at Mutindwa, the Ruiru train is expected to suffer delay," read part of the statement released by KR.
The corporation only released one train plying the route from Ruiru station to the Nairobi central terminus and vice versa.
The train normally departs from Ruiru station at 6 am and goes through various pit stops such as Kahawa West, Githurai, Mwiki, Dandora, Makadara before it proceeds to Nairobi Central Station at 7.35 am.
During the evening schedule, the train departs from Nairobi central station at 5.40 pm and proceeds to the 5 stops before arriving in Ruiru at 7.10 pm
A similar incident occurred on Wednesday, January 6, when the Nairobi Commuter Train stalled at the Makadara station after it got stuck on the mainline rail. This caused a number of passengers who rely on the train service to be stranded.
"I boarded a train from the Imara Daima station to town because I live around the area, but when we got to Makadara, a train from Embakasi had stalled on the mainline.
"The train operators resorted to towing the stuck train, a process which took around 45 minutes. We were then told to board the stalled train after it started its engine," one of the passengers who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke narrated the ordeal.
According to the passenger, the travel time took 1 hour and 30 minutes longer than the normal time.
"A normal trip to town from Imara Daima that takes about 15 minutes. The trip ended up lasting about 1 hour and 45 minutes," the passenger stated.
Passengers have had to adjust on travel times while using the train service due to a variety of factors like maintenance.
For instance, KR recently announced scheduled maintenance for the new Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) which meant a 15 minutes increase in transit time on the Nairobi-Syokimau route. The Nairobi commuter train was provided as an alternative for passengers to use.
