NRC to Travellers: No mask, no entry into rail station facilities, environs

*Railway Corporation expects Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) with 8 coaches, 2 heads, for express train

*Any passenger unwilling to comply with safety protocols shouldn’t come to our station, declares Train Service Manager

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

As part of the organisation’s preparations for actual resumption of operations July 29, 2020, the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) has declared its facilities and environs a no-mask no-entry zone henceforth.

Mr. Pascal Nnorli, Manager, Abuja-Kaduna train service, who disclosed to this reporters said that the corporation had instituted measures to ensure that passengers obey all COVID-19 guidelines while journeying on the trains.

Nnorli said: “We are 85 percent ready because we know a day like that will come.

“If you pass through our station at Idu today, you will see a demo of what we intend to do in all the stations.

“You can see the social distancing marked at strategic locations. Now we have a definite date for resumption, we will complete them in all the passenger stations.

“Again, the first thing we are going to do is to decontaminate all our running stock, because we have parked them for a while, almost four months now and also decontaminate our stations and our offices.

According to the Abuja-Kaduna train service Manager, travellers could see on board that the NRC has selected the seats that are going to be used, for the business class we are reducing the number by half.

“Each row has four, and we are carrying two, for the economy, each row has five, there will be one empty seat in between two passengers.

“And again, we have declared all railway environment and facilities no mask – no entry environment,” said he.

Nnorli also said that station was expecting a Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) with eight coaches and two heads, which would be used for express train.

The full compliments of the additional stocks would go a long way to assuage the problem of teaming passengers seeking rail transport service.

Influx of passengers, according to him, would be determined after the resumption of operations as some passengers would be sceptical to travel by train.

On managing passenger influx, Nnorli said measures were already in place to ensure physical distancing was maintained.

Security personnel around the station had also been increased to enforce compliance with the regulations.

The Manager stated: “This is about life and death; it doesn’t know big man, middle man or small man. So, anybody who is not willing to comply with those protocols we have set, please don’t come to our station.”

“When passengers obey simply rules of stop here, till the next passenger before you moves, we have developed a strategy.

“We don’t intend to apply force but instead of one person to come and kill 5000 persons, we apply force, we are not going to compromise on that.

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