The Nigerian Railway Corporation has announced that the long-awaited electronic ticketing (e-ticketing) on the standard gauge network will commence next week.
The Corporation’s Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, said the last leg of the testing of the platform will be accomplished today, (Wednesday), when it is expected to go live to a restricted number of people, for last-minute glitches before it would be opened to the general public.
According to him, e-ticketing will put an end to the challenges observed in the present practice where passengers must appear in person at train stations before they can obtain tickets, adding that e-ticketing would ensure that passengers are able to buy their train tickets at least 48 hours to their proposed departure date and this could be done from the comfort of their homes or offices.
He said: “The e-ticketing is the way to go, it is the way to secure our money and our investments, because as you buy your tickets it goes to the government coffers directly. We have it in Abuja-Kaduna and we are also going to have it at Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri. By the end of the month, our passengers should start using it.”
Okhiria disclosed that the disciplinary committee which was sitting on the matter of some of its staff caught on camera collecting fares for a ride in the train in Ibadan, on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge has been dismissed in accordance with the extant rules of the corporation.
