The government revealed that it intends to buy new trains that will have a capacity to transport more than 132,000 people in Nairobi every day.
Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia announced on Friday that they were looking for diesel trains to provide an alternative form of transport.
“We will be shortly announcing how we will go about putting up the major investments. This alone will move so many vehicles from the roads and ease congestion on roads,” the CS stated.
Macharia explained that the project will be undertaken before the bus rapid transit system, which he said requires more infrastructural investment, including the expansion of roads and creation of bus stations.
The CS also announced that he had formed a task force to look into the regulation of the bodaboda sector.
The sector has more than 700,000 operators and it is expected that they will reach one million in 2019.
The public transport system is going through a major transformational process and the transformation is going in line with the implementation of the Big Four agenda.
According to the Ministry of Transport, only about 12,000 people in the city use rail transport daily.
On November 12, the train service was put to the test as thousands of Kenyans preferred using the mode of transport after experiencing a shortage of public transport vehicles owing to the implementation of the Michuki rules.
As a response to the increased demand, the ministry announced new train schedules to ease the convenience of commuters.
