The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) is set to introduce night operations and expand its daily train services before the second quarter of 2024, according to the Managing Director of NRC, Fidet Okhiria.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday, Okhiria highlighted the need for trains to operate at all times, expressing the Corporation’s intention to reinstate passenger and freight trains on key routes.

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Okhiria explained, “What is limiting us is the night operations, and that is not the way trains should operate.

The train is meant to operate at all times. People may like to travel in the evening, but because of the security situation in the country, we limit ourselves to the daytime.

We intend to bring back passenger and freight trains from Port-Harcourt to Aba, Lagos to Kano, and Kaduna because of the dry ports.”

The plan involves increasing the number of daily train trips to six on the standard gauge train for routes such as Lagos-Ibadan, Warri-Itakpe, and Abuja-Kaduna.

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Currently running four trips—two up and two down across the board—NRC aims to enhance services with three trips to and three trips from, making a total of six trips in a day.

Okhiria assured that the increased trips and night operations would commence before the second quarter of 2024.