The coastal region is my hometown. I have two sets of experiences...
1. The late 80's & Early 90's experienceTravel by train was very very popular. The train used to ply the Mombasa-Nairobi route on a daily basis (both ways). Foreign tourists used to predominantly travel 1st class, while the well off local families would mainly travel 2nd class. As for the rest of 'us', the common-folk; the crowded 3rd class would do.
The trains ran on time and travel was fun (I was still a kid and the crowds were fun for me). Itinerant traders would peddle all sorts of wares round the coaches. The train would stop at each and every obscure station along the way. More often than not, out of their own carelessness, someone would lose their baggage or get pick-pocketed. Railway Police officers were all over adding onto the friendly crowd.
2. Post 2000 Experience. (I had to use the train way into my final years in campus to save on valuable coins)Train travel had been completely run down. The coaches were in a pathetic state of disrepair and only those who had no otherwise would opt to travel 3rd class. Departure and arrival times were not certain. The numbers had dwindled to noticeably low levels. Save to a few adventurous tourists, the fad of 1st and 2nd class coaches had died out. The Mombasa bound train ran every Monday, Wednesday and Friday while the Nairobi bound one ran on Tuesdays, Thursday and Sunday.
The last time I used the train was in 2007.
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