The Kenya Railways Corporation on Wednesday, March 2, announced adjustments to its Standard Gauge Railway Service (SGR) service following the closure of schools.
In a statement seen by Kenyans.co.ke, Kenya Railways announced that it would add coaches to the Madaraka Express train to accommodate the student traffic that is expected to rise.
This is after schools released non-candidate students for a seven-week holiday break to pave way for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.
The new development will take effect from Wednesday, March 2, and will run until Sunday, March 20.
"The school holidays are here. To accommodate the increased demand for public transport services, we have added coaches to the Mombasa-Nairobi Madaraka Express Passenger Service trains up to March 20, 2022," read the statement in part.
On normal traffic days, the Madaraka Express operates on 16 economy cabins and two first-class wagons with a capacity of 118 passengers and 72 passengers respectively.
Save for the additional wagons, Kenya Railways will have four passenger trains plying the Mombasa-Nairobi route to and fro including the 10.00 pm night train.
Those who wish to travel can purchase a ticket on the Kenya Railways website, use the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Code dial *639#, or visit the nearest Madaraka Express Station.
According to the school calendar, students are expected to go for a 7week-long break on March 4 before resuming for another term on April 27 for the first term of the 2022 academic year.
The SGR has become the select mode of travel to Mombasa. On February 27, the Chinese government announced that it made a handsome donation to the National Police Service (NPS) following the launch of a new surveillance centre in Nairobi on Wednesday, February 23.
Notably, the development boosted the security of the passenger train, as the new Operation Center has been fitted with CCTV cameras monitoring the Nairobi to Mombasa Standard Gauge Railway line.
The donation also included high-range vehicles to be used by the law enforcement officers in the country in responding to emergencies raised from the surveillance centre.
