The Kenya Railways Corporation on Thursday, October 28, announced that it will be reducing fares to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by 40 percent on the railway link running from the city to the airport.
Speaking to a local media house, the corporation stated that the move is set to attract more passengers to use the service in a bid to decongest the traffic experienced on Mombasa Road.
This comes as a relief to passengers as fares reduce from Ksh250 to Ksh150.
The service is set to serve passengers who alight at the Embakasi Railway Station from where a Bus Rapid Transit(BRT) bus will pick them up and ferry them to the airport.
Travelling to the airport is especially expensive due to the inconveniences emanating from the construction of the Nairobi Expressway along Mombasa Road.
"The ongoing construction along Mombasa Road has inconvenienced motorists especially those travelling to the airport in the morning. We want to provide an easier alternative,” stated KRC during the interview.
The traffic menace along Mombasa Road has been a major concern for the majority of the motorists with some spending the night on the road.
Passengers are often forced to use taxi's to access the airport, and they cough up fares as high as Kshs1,000 to access the airport.
The Kshs150 train ride is cheaper and faster compared to the costly service that taxi operators charge to ferry individuals from the city centre to JKIA.
The Kenya Railways Corporation recently received the second batch of Diesel Mobile Units(DMU) from Spain in a Kshs1.1 billion plan to decongest road traffic in September 2021.
The locomotives scheduled to serve the Embakasi Route at 8.14 a.m are complementary to the already existing train that serves the Lukenya route in the morning leaving at 05:45 a.m, and returning at 6 p.m in the evening.
In the DMU, there are 2 sets of sitting capacity, with one accommodating 60 passengers while the other carries 45 passengers.
"Most of Kenyans are not aware we actually run these trains on a daily basis and they are getting stuck on the road," stated Philip Mainga, the KRC Managing Director.
