Madaraka Express to make stops at Voi, Mtito Andei from Aug 1

Kenya railways is set to introduce additional trains on the Madaraka Express train services, enabling make stops along the Mombasa Nairobi line.

The inter-city train, set to be launched on August 1, will make stops in Voi and Mtito Andei with services available once a day.

Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina said on Thursday that passenger demand on the train had risen making it necessary the move to have a train that could make stops along the way.

“We have decided to escalate the service slightly more by having two stops on the same service. So from first of August we will be stopping at Voi and Mtito Andei,” Mr Maina said.

The stops will be made by the two trains currently serving the Nairobi Mombasa line, with each stop expected to take an average of three minutes.

Passengers making stops at the two train stations will be able to purchase their tickets from the termini or through M-Pesa

The state agency shelved plans to launch inter county train services with trains making stops at five other train stations along the standard gauge railway line.

Mr Maina said more work was being down to ensure optimal use of the railway line.

“As soon as we get feedback on that we will start improving on the service so that we can make sure that all county stations are receiving the service in the coming months,” he added.

Since its launch at the end of May, the Madaraka Express train ahs ferried over 150,000 passengers, signifying the buy in from the public as an alternative mode of transport.

At the same time, commuters on the Madaraka express train will be required to book their tickets a week in advance as part of new measures to improve the ticketing system.

Kenya Railways announced the changes with passengers also able to book return tickets on the platform.

Maina said the new ticketing format incorporating passenger identification details has been agreed on and will be rolled out in a month’s time once the current ticket stock is done away with.

“The format of the ticket will have the name, ID number of the user so that we also take care of the security features of the system. All we will do when you arrive at the station is check whether the details you have match those on our system,” Mr Maina stressed.

The measure has been implemented to weed out brokers who have been bulk buying tickets only to re sell them to travelers at higher prices.