The authorities of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) have said that whereas the Corporation barely earns up to N1.7m per day, it uses about 24,000 litres of diesel daily for the Lagos- Ibadan route, amounting to about N4 million.

NRC said that it spends 135.3 percent higher than what it earns from the sale of tickets to passengers daily on fuelling the trains that operate on the Lagos-Ibadan Train Service.
Sunday Punch reports that the NRC said it had to reduce the trips on its Warri-Itakpe and Lagos-Ibadan train services by half due to the hike in diesel price, as well as the negative impact on railway services caused by the March 28 terrorists at on the Abuja-Kaduna train.

The NRC Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, told the newspaper in Abuja that though passengers were gradually returning, the March 28 Abuja-Kaduna attack did not only crumble the Abuja-Kaduna route, but made travellers to desert railways across the country.

The MD was quoted as saying, “The Abuja-Kaduna train bombing on March 28 has seriously affected us.

The Abuja-Kaduna service was doing marvelously well. At a time, we were hitting N450m monthly and by the time you remove all operational costs you’ll still have something to pay to the government.
“But now, we can hardly buy diesel to operate. In fact, the major headache now is the price of diesel.

For instance, on average, we use about 24,000 litres daily for the Lagos-Ibadan service and we barely earn up to N1.7m per day.

“Now the supply cost for a litre of diesel is close to N1,000. At the filling stations, you get it for about N700 to N800, but if you have a supplier, he will have to put his profit margin, VAT and others, and this brings the cost to about N1,000 per litre. So, we are talking about spending almost N4m on diesel alone, when we barely make N1.7m. But we still have to provide the services on that.route.”

On how the NRC was sourcing funds to sustain its operations, Okhiria said, “In the 2022 budget, the.government provided about N500m for diesel, which barely lasts up to a month for rail services across the country.

“We also search for funds from other sources, such as property rents and others. So, we use it to augment what we earn from the train services. See, it has been a serious headache, I won’t lie to you. It has been stressful and the NRC is owing for diesel, but we cannot stop.”

On the March 28 Abuja-Kaduna train attack, the MD said, “Before, passengers had the confidence that train ride was the safest, but when that incident happened, it was a big blow to the rail industry. It is now that people are trying to build back their confidence. So, the volume of passengers has reduced.

“And, unfortunately, the war in Ukraine and other variables have made petroleum products’ prices to skyrocket astronomically. And being a service provider for the benefit of Nigeria, we cannot just wake up and increase fares. For even when you increase fares, you may price yourself out of competition.”

Okhiria further noted that in order to reduce losses, the corporation had to check its operations to maximise what it had without causing pain to passengers.
He said, “So, we had to reduce the number of trips by half on both Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri train services and that is what we are still doing. This is because the revenue we earn cannot pay for the amount we spend on diesel presently.”

“We are just trying to get support from other sources to be able to pay just for diesel, not to talk of payments for cleaning, security, among others. All those are also pending issues that will take a lot of money to maintain them.

“The Lagos-Ibadan trips were up to six in the past and by now we should be talking about 10 trips, if not for the problems. But now, we operate four trips on that service. On the.Warri-Itakpe service, we are doing just two trips as against the four trips that we were doing before,” the NRC.boss added.

Source> https://saharareporters.com/2022/09/18/lagos-ibadan-train-nigerian-railway-spends-about-n4-million-diesel-alone-daily-makes-n17

I remember predicting this thing ...years back .. infrastructure doesn't really kick start development it complement it this was what Peter Obi was arguing with osibanjo in 2019 now see the results

Speed rails are too expensive to run can never break even in a country as poor as we for now !!!!
What we needed was effective locomotive rail from Ibadan to the ports in Lagos to move containers

$150 million would have achieved that

Their is a rail from warri to lokoja ...it should have been locomotive from warri port to Abuja , with branch off to Onitsha and imo state
From onne to aba then to Enugu then to Jos and Maiduguri
All the Above can be achieved with 600 million dollars max if we have an effective government

1.5 billion dollars wasted I mean over 1 trillion Naira

If proforce and innoson where given 100 billion each to expand production they would have employed twice what this rail line would employ

1 billion to 100 cocoa clusters to build cocoa processing plants ban exportation of raw cocoa we only export cocoa powder and butter with would double value in a taxable business


This are the simple things Peter Obi is talking about ...we don't have much but we can effectively use what we have better

So today it's obvious Peter Obi was right osibanjo was wrong ....won't you still vote Peter Obi ?

Wahala..
How much would be the fee for train transportation zi

Ok

Everyday problem

interesting even with Cargo traffic the rails are running at a loss. I'm not surprised about passengers rail considering they subsidize below market value like other things.

Can't boxcars be attached to the trains behind to carry cargo?.. is it only a passenger train? Add oil tanks aswell... drag the trains to profit.

If it was a a personal business, would anyone consider running such a loss?

iamwilliamsfx:
Wahala..

How much would be the fee for train transportation zi

The fee should be around 50k to break even

In Europe I read is over £1.5 per 10 km that's around 10k per 10km 1k per km ...

Lagos to Ibadan is 130km ...that's 130,000 naira ...say labour cost is cheaper hear so we should get 60% cheaper ..based on that Lagos to Ibadan in a high speed train should cost 78k for it to make any profit and pay off its debt


So when Peter Obi was arguing with osibanjo in 2019 this was what he was talking about we are not yet ripe for rail ...you can't borrow to fund projects that can't break even and pay for themselves

Please I do not understand what these people are trying to say.

“ On how the NRC was sourcing funds to sustain its operations, Okhiria said, “In the 2022 budget, the.government provided about N500m for diesel, which barely lasts up to a month for rail services across the country.
“We also search for funds from other sources, such as property rents and others. So, we use it to augment what we earn from the train services. See, it has been a serious headache, I won’t lie to you. It has been stressful and the NRC is owing for diesel, but we cannot stop.”

If railways were built to make profits from loans obtained from China, how is it that government provided 500m for diesel in the 2022 budget? What is government’s business with providing funds for diesel if the NRC was set out for profit making in the first place?

Why do they have to source for funds for diesel from everywhere?

As a government organization, is it not possible to make arrangements with the NNPC to get regular supply of diesel at cheaper costs, rather than “suppliers”?

Please at this rate, how will Nigeria pay off loans obtained from the Chinese?

Is it not common sense that since diesel charges alone amount to 4.4m daily, prices have to be increased to make profit?

Are railways built for to score cheap political goals?

One may not doubt that diesel and maintenance has become a veritable source of looting by civil servants in the NRC and politicians.

When will Nigeria get out of the grip of corruption?

It seems things has been in comatose in NRC since Amaechi left. Hmmn Hausa has taken over...expect redundancy. That's their trade mark wherever they head.

mrvitalis:

The fee should be around 50k to break even

In Europe I read is over £1.5 per 10 km that's around 10k per 10km 1k per km ...

Lagos to Ibadan is 130km ...that's 130,000 naira ...say labour cost is cheaper hear so we should get 60% cheaper ..based on that Lagos to Ibadan in a high speed train should cost 78k for it to make any profit and pay off its debt


So when Peter Obi was arguing with osibanjo in 2019 this was what he was talking about we are not yet ripe for rail ...you can't borrow to fund projects that can't break even and pay for themselves

I thought train is the cheapest means of transportation

iamwilliamsfx:



I thought train is the cheapest means of transportation

Not speed trains. They are just faster than planes( if u add boarding time , checkin time ,and check out ) reason it makes sense

Google sha

mrvitalis:

Not speed trains. They are just faster than planes( if u add boarding time , checkin time ,and check out ) reason it makes sense

Google sha

Those are not high speed trains bro.

Nigeria cannot afford those ones yet.

Cantonese:


Those are not high speed trains bro.

Nigeria cannot afford those ones yet.

Those are standard gauge trains similar to what u have in Europe ...high speeds ( billet Trains ) are mostly in Asia

mrvitalis:

Those are standard gauge trains similar to what u have in Europe ...high speeds ( billet Trains ) are mostly in Asia

Exactly. The Ibadan trains originally were thought to run at approximately 150 km/ph. However they presently run at 60km/ph. The ones by Lagos state government should run at 335km/ph. They are way faster and should be costlier.

There was a country....

Zoogeria... Nothing good can come out of bad leaders

lol I neva see Govt wey dey clueless and daft reach diz present Govt...

wetin suppose dey generate revenue instead he dey waste revenue....


Nigeria no dey ripe for all this thing true true cos we want everything to be subsidized....

Those making noise about Lagos Ibadan rail being an infrastructure
Guess what is about to be abandoned like Abuja Kaduna rain
Build infrastructures that are self sustainable and essential

Resort Ajaokuta steel company
A bigger deep sea port in Akwa Ibom
Renovate the roads

Wow betide you foolish old leaders and these fool ani fools in government.
In most countries in Europe where they don't have crude oil, train transport is almost free even if you're traveling to heaven. You tell us that you import petrol and put subsidies, no problem. We all know the truth. But what about diesel? DIESEL IS THE EASIEST FUEL TO REFINE FROM CRUDE OIL
It's so easy that 70% of what Niger Delta boys refine and cook up daily is DIESEL!!!
How is it possible that you fools are telling us now that you run at loss?

Hmm

Are these guys so dumb they didn't plan this minute details when embarking on this project from the get go??


The fact that this is surprising them, gives that conclusion.


Wait, did he just reference the Ukraine War? Other oil countries like Saudi are cashing out due to the current oil boom , sotey they wan build a new city with top infrastructure. We are still here, bunkering and vandalizing. If things were going the right way, half like Saudis, minimum wage will effortlessly be 100k and it won't affect any coffers. But no


So this deficit made them to reduce some trips?

Okay.

One will be quick to blame insecurity, but this is lack of proper planning.

Wahala plenty for this country

Nigeria is a joke! Always putting the cart before the horse!

Mos of the people commenting here are very ignorant of world realities.
The fact is that most public transportation around the world don't make anything close to their operations cost not to talk of profit.
Especially a new rail system that's just getting off the ground cannot break even anytime soon. Most private businesses don't even break even in the beginning not to talk of a public business. Do you guys even think that most buses and train systems in Europe and the US are breaking even or even making any money? Most will go out of business without govt subsidies and allocations.
Couple this world reality with the Nigerian factor of bribe and corruption. Everyone working at the train station is already thinking of how to pocket the ticket fee instead of giving it to the govt.
Employ some of these youths on NL and their number goal is to get rich from one scam or the other at the train stations....

Hmm

Remember when Abuja-Kaduna train passengers were kidnapped? It was discovered that there were more passengers not on the manifest than those in it.
1000 passengers enter train and all buy tickets. 300 tickets are remitted and 700 pocketed.
That's also how our airline died, our refineries, our ships etc etc
Corruption will be the end of us all

These people in government are truly insane. Who are they complaining to. At least Buhari promised to build one refinery every year for the duration of year he will spend in government. Where is the promise. If the only achievement of this government which they termed railway revolution is not sustainable then they should close market. And least railway is just secondary mean of transportation. Truly Buhari is a calamity. Anything he touches become a curse.

mrvitalis:
I remember predicting this thing ...years back .. infrastructure doesn't really kick start development it complement it this was what Peter Obi was arguing with osibanjo in 2019 now see the results

Speed rails are too expensive to run can never break even in a country as poor as we for now !!!!
What we needed was effective locomotive rail from Ibadan to the ports in Lagos to move containers

$150 million would have achieved that

So today it's obvious Peter Obi was right osibanjo was wrong ....won't you still vote Peter Obi ?

Before you guys type mumbo-jumbo, try to reason for yourselves for once. That rail project is an outdated and overdue infrastructure, something you can never find anymore in developed countries.

The major reason why they seem to be running at a loss is low patronage and the current price of diesel, nothing else.

There is no country in the world where government-owned transport infrastructure is seen as strictly for-profit, it's meant to ease the lives of citizens and facilitate movement of goods and services in the country, the ripple effects are then a good business/trading ecosystem and creation of jobs which would lead to more taxes for the government.

That explanation you gave above is too myopic and limited in scope.