Social distancing: NRC to work on coaches to resume operation – Official

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) says it has to work on passengers coaches to ensure social distancing, if its Mass Transit Train Services (MTTS) must resume operation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lagos Railway District Manager, Mr Jerry Oche, made this disclosure in an interview with our reporter on Monday in Lagos while speaking on possibility of the corporation resuming service.

Oche said: “We are working round the clock to see how we can maintain social distance in the coaches, if we must run and keep social distance.

“Nobody can tell when this COVID-19 will end; it has come to say for some time and government is already opening up the space gradually.

“Coaches of the mass transit trains service are to be worked upon to accommodate the possibility for social distancing, if we must resume and maintain social distancing,” he said.

According to him, the Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) trains are under repairs in case the need arises for the corporation to begin MTTS amidst COVID-19.

Recall that the NRC announced the suspension of the Lagos-Ogun MTTS on March 25 as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the state and the country.

Though the MTTS has yet to resume, the corporation has been operating freight services from Apapa Port to Alagomeji Terminals in Yaba as well as to Ijoko Terminals in Ogun.