PHOTO | FILE Passengers alight from a commuter train at Syokimau Railway Station on November 14, 2012. The majority of the commuting population was left out of the launched shuttle service, and lack of a supplementary town transport system means buses and matatus are still the preferred mode of transport. NATION
In Summary
- With plenty of parking space at stations, the KRC plan was to keep an estimated 2,500 private vehicles out of the central business district and several thousand matatu and bus passengers off Mombasa Road.
- In advanced economies like South Africa and the United Kingdom where commuter trains have succeeded in easing traffic in cities, railway termini are designed to work seamlessly with last-mile connectivity by bus or underground to high-population centres.
By Ramenya Gibendi
When the Syokimau commuter train service was launched in late 2012, the objective was to ease traffic congestion on Mombasa Road by offering an alternative and convenient means of transport to the city centre.
With plenty of parking space at stations, the KRC plan was to keep an estimated 2,500 private vehicles out of the central business district and several thousand matatu and bus passengers off Mombasa Road.
But residents of Syokimau, Mlolongo, Athi River, Kitengela and surrounding areas appear to have shunned the service if the continuing traffic jams on Mombasa Road are anything to go by.
Syokimau was the first railway station commissioned in the county in more than 80 years; it has since been followed by Imara Daima and Makadara stations.
Sector players attribute the lack of uptake to the failure of Kenya Railways to target the right market, as well as the lack of a policy to reduce entry of private cars into the CBD.
The absence of a proper transport system within the city to supplement the trains has also been cited as a concern.
Despite lowered fares between the Syokimau and Nairobi main stations, many commuters still prefer matatus or private cars. In an attempt to attract more customers, the corporation halved fares and dropped the mid-day Syokimau service.
At the 2012 launch the one-way fare was Sh120 for the 18-kilometre journey that takes about 30 minutes. That has since been lowered to Sh50 during off-peak hours.
FAILED MODEL
“It is a good concept, but it will take an equally efficient public bus system that will motivate car owners to use the commuter service,” Carole Kariuki of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance said.
With the existing system, she notes, motorists don’t need to think twice about what to use between a ‘chaotic’ matatu system and their private cars.
A KRC official, who declined to be quoted by name in this story, faulted the corporation for its decision to target the middle class instead of the mass market, which could have had a bigger impact.
“This is the key benefit of urban rail – it must be aimed at the mass market, not the middle class,” stressed the official.
“KRC failed on this account. The Syokimau shuttle service terminates in a poorly inhabited centre yet it has high-end infrastructural investments to maintain. The revenue generated is too low.”
He said the Ruiru/Kahawa/Dandora routes could have provided about 6,000 passengers per trip daily an indication of the potential that lies in such high-density areas.
But the corporation seems to be going further down the same road with its park-and-ride approach for the Imara Daima and Embakasi railway stations.
These centres are also located in middle-class, low-density areas away from main housing developments, yet the concept should be last-mile connectivity by buses with large bus parks at the stations and not just individual parking slots.
In advanced economies like South Africa and the United Kingdom where commuter trains have succeeded in easing traffic in cities, railway termini are designed to work seamlessly with last-mile connectivity by bus or underground to high-population centres.
They are also integrated with other modes of transport and allow easy access by cyclists through adequate, secure parking at termini.
“Rail transport the world over is a mass transport system. It won’t work if they stick with this middle-class model,” argues Vimal Shah, chairman of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.
Mrs Kariuki also argues that there should be a policy regulating the entry of two-wheelers and private cars into the city as they are uneconomical and wasteful in the usage of road space.
“The imbalance in the use of urban space is leading to increased road congestion, thereby negating any effect that would have been created by commuter trains,” she said.
KRC acting managing director Alfred Matheka has defended the fact that the Syokimau project is registering losses.
“We are not looking at making profits. At the moment we are offering public service,” he said while commenting on the economic sustainability of the service.
“The cost of running the commuter services shall be offset through Treasury allocations and income from KRC’s real estate investments.”
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