Passenger hitches can help Kenya Railways get cargo right

What you need to know:

  • Millions of train tickets are sold every day around the world, without passenger details being imprinted on them
  • Kenya Railways itself has several trains that travel from the old railway station in downtown Nairobi to the new one in Syokimau ferrying passengers every day to the station
  • Importers and manufacturers will align their truck operations and schedules for delivery or collection at Syokimau or Miritini.

The entrance to the train station is now largely a bus stop for hundreds of matatus. The guard shaking his head before I spoke said it all; SGR tickets are not here at the old train station in Nairobi, you have to buy them at the Syokimau station.

A check of Twitter confirms the mess at Syokimau, where hundreds queue for tickets early in the morning for trips to Mombasa four days later, and most are disappointed when they sell out by 8 a.m.

It seems that middlemen buy some tickets to sell at a profit, and Kenya Railways is grappling with this as the main problem.

Even as Kenya Railways launches new stop services to enable the train serve traditional stations of the old tracks, at Mtito Andei and Voi from August 1, they also plan a new booking system and ticketing system that will involves printing names of passengers on tickets to curb-ticket re-sellers.

There was also a plan to charge foreigners a much higher rate than East African travellers, that was criticised by some, including Mohammed Hersi, the Chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation. That plan has been set aside for now.

Yet, are expensive new tickets necessary? Millions of train tickets are sold every day around the world, without passenger details being imprinted on them, used for daily journeys and discarded afterwards.

No one looks at them; no officials check the identity of the train riders. The current system at Kenya Railways works. A cousin called and bought a ticket on the phone. She then went to the station, and printed her tickets at a machine and was out in ten minutes to say goodbye to her escorts before she went and boarded the train.

This is the same situation in dozens of capital around the world. The problem with Kenya Railways is that it is facing unprecedented demand in the short term

VULTURE-LIKE BUS COMPANIES

Equally remarkable is the cottage industry that has built up around the Standard gauge railway. The efficiency of the train that leaves precisely on time is refreshing.

If you hang around a train station, you might see taxis rushing up, with passengers hefting luggage only to be pointed to the train in the distance, that left at the scheduled time.

Kenya Railways itself has several trains that travel from the old railway station in downtown Nairobi to the new one in Syokimau ferrying passengers every day to the station, and bypassing the unpredictable traffic on Mombasa Road.

Upcountry shuttles also arrive at the SGR train station early every morning; some bring passengers who want to buy tickets or ride to Mombasa, while others bring groups of school children and other upcountry tourists who have come to see the marvel of the SGR.

There are more buses that time their departure the stations to ferry passengers off the train at Syokimau on to upcountry destinations.

There are some vulture-like bus companies who depart immediately after the SGR has left and ferry passengers who came to the station late and either could not get tickets, or missed the train, and are desperate to get to Mombasa as soon as possible.

But once again, it should be said, passengers are not the reason for the new train.

While about 500,000 are said to have used the train between Nairobi and Mombasa in the two months since it was launched, it is meant for cargo services, not subsidised passenger rides.

Cargo, which will officially launch in December, is meant to pay for about 90 per cent of the revenue for the new railway. While it is nice to have for politicians, selfie-takers, tourists, school children and wildlife viewers on board, cargo and trucks are what it is aimed at.

JOURNEYS HALVED

While there is a clamour for online ticketing systems for passenger rides, I hope Kenya Railways will have one ready to serve the cargo business.

Importers and manufacturers will align their truck operations and schedules for delivery or collection at Syokimau or Miritini. Cargo operations have to be seamless in terms of clearing, dock space, parking, traffic, loading and unloading.

These could be goods destined for the interior of Kenya for now or other East African countries, and companies will now have their long truck journeys halved by using the new railway.

This does not mean trucks will be put out of business, but they will have new routes to serve from either end of the standard gauge railway or whatever cargo stop points Kenya Railways facilitates.

For now, I hope Kenya Railways is marketing the new rail service to the people who really matter – cargo transporters.

Twitter: @bankelele