The Nigerian Railway Corporation on Thursday announced that it would raise the speed of trains travelling from Abuja to Kaduna from 90 kilometres per hour to 130km/h.
This followed the delivery of two new standard gauge locomotive engines received by the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, at the Lagos Port on Thursday. The engines were imported from China.
The minister, who was represented by the Managing Director of the NRC, Mr. Fidet Okhiria, said the new engines were built with the capacity to travel at 150km/h.
return trips because the new locomotives will be running at a speed of 130km per hour as against the 90km per hour we are currently doing.
“The locomotives will be put to use for the Nigerian standard gauge rail project although for now, we are only doing the Kaduna-Abuja standard gauge rail.”
He added that the two new locomotives were part of the 20 engines expected to be delivered in the country for the standard gauge rail operation, noting that 10 more locomotives were expected to arrive in the country by September.
The minister stated, “These two locomotives are specifically designed for passenger train movement. These locomotives have inbuilt power supply. This is unprecedented. They are designed for 150km per hour rail services and they are double-end drivers’ cabin. What this means is that on both ends of the locomotive, there is a drivers’ cabin. What we used to have is a locomotive with only one drivers’ cabin on one side.
“These two locomotives were ordered in 2014. The 10 locomotives that we ordered in April 2017, the company manufacturing them has asked that we come for factory acceptance test. We hope that by September, these 10 coaches will arrive in the country.”
The minster also said the government had approved another seven locomotives, “and we are in the process of raising letters of credit for those ones.”
