Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari (C) sits in a passenger coach at a train station in suburban Abuja, on July 26, 2016. Nigeria marked a symbolic progress of railway service when its first completed standard gauge railway modernization project assisted by China, was open for commercial operation. With nine stations and a design speed of 150 km per hour, the Abuja-Kaduna rail line covers a distance of 186.5 km. (Xinhua/Yang Hongjie)
ABUJA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian Senate has voted and adopted a motion that more coaches should be deployed to Abuja-Kaduna train service, amid increasing traffic on the first China-assisted Standard Guage Railway project in West Africa.
The voice voting conducted by Senate President Bukola Saraki on Wednesday followed a motion by Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno State, that the urgent need to increase the number of coaches in the Abuja-Kaduna rail line would ameliorate the plight of passengers who have resorted to traveling by rail out of fear of kidnapping and other criminal activities while traveling by road.
According to the official News Agency of Nigeria, the Senate has also called on the Nigerian Railway Corporation to increase the frequency of trips, while regulating prices to check abuse on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line.
Ndume said that most passengers travelling between Kaduna and Abuja had resorted to rail as a safer means of transport.
A train is seen at the station platform in Abuja, Nigeria on May 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Jiang Xintong)
He also said that the increase in the patronage of the rail services came as a result of its relative safety, comfort, convenience, and affordability.
Ndume said many travelers jostle for tickets at the train stations on a daily basis, adding that a shortage in the number of available coaches was the reason for the long queues recorded at the stations.
Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna, described the Abuja-Kaduna railway as "the oxygen and lifeline of the people," saying the road had become one of the most dangerous roads in the country.
Senate Committee Chairman on Transport, Gbenga Ashafa, said 12 more coaches would be delivered shortly to enable more passengers to travel on the Abuja-Kaduna rail.