Nairobi commuters won't want tardiness on their trains

THE ON-AGAIN off-again saga of the metro link to Dublin airport rumbles on, but that has not stopped Ireland stepping in to help the citizens of Nairobi get to Jomo Kenyatta airport by rail.

Reports reach us – via Bloomberg – that Kenya Railways Corp, the state-owned rail operator, has signed an agreement to improve the commuter rail network in the capital, Nairobi, in a bid to boost passenger numbers five-fold.

The accord, with a group including the World Bank, the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland and Austria, will increase daily passenger volumes to 100,000 from 19,000, and raise numbers of trains to 67 a day, from eight.

Managing director Nduva Muli told reporters: “There is unprecedented demand for rail-commuter transport within Nairobi and its environs, which continues to grow.”

A new line will be built to link the city with Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the terms of the deal with the company, known as Infraco, Muli said. Investors will be found during the next 24 months and the commuter train service will start running 18 months later, Kenya Railways said.

Quite what Ireland’s involvement in all this is not clear, but let’s hope that for sake of Nairobi’s commuters it has nothing much to do with the choice of the best route for the link to the airport.

Otherwise, they had better start rethinking those timelines.