I am inside(now..yaani sahii) the SGR train towards Mombasa. I must confess that today was a nightmare for most passengers especially the ones that booked online due to the following reasons.
1. There were double bookings for sits(This is totally unacceptable).
2. There was a peculiar ticket printing method whereby you have to queue on for your ticket to be printed by a teller.(lA teller like those in banking halls).IMHO, Kenya railways should let kenyans do this for themselves rather than those moody/hormone overdosed women tellers. 5 minutes to check-in time and Kenyans were still queuing waiting to be served.
3. The washrooms were a disaster. Kinyesi was all over the walls in the toilets. No tissue paper etc. Someone tell Ole itumbi or Alai to tweet/SMS this to Uhuru himself. Choo ni kama public toilets za Nairobi county council...Shame Shame..Someone tell the President that his railway is being mismanaged.
4. The attitude of the train hostess and those people serving food on the train leaves alot to be desired. Wafanyi kazi huko wako na attitude mbaya which stinks of nepotism...They are very rude and arrogant these staff members. Imagine a young lady with two tois told to mop the floor coz one of her kids have poured yoghurt on the floor
5. An elderly mzee i am sitting with says that he thinks that these trains are overstaffed and he believes this is the reason for the inefficiencies. It seems that SGR has become an employment agency for our unqualified/undeserving relathieves who have refused to clean the toilets at the terminus and clean the yogho that kids spill on the train floor.
5.Raising the fare will surely reduce the number of travelers. As @Alma has noted, why should i pay 100 bob to syoks, 1200 to Mombasa, 200 to Mombasa CBD and buy an over priced breakfast (chai na mandazi moja stale) for 200 bob when i can eat my chapati madondo at 100 bob and pay 1200 in Dreamline bus or Simba coach that drops me in Mwembe.
If @Ole itumbi reads this then he should let the powers that be that this is happening to save the situation ASAP otherwise it will be billions down the drain
Dumb money becomes dumb only when it listens to smart money