The management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has denied the report making the rounds on social and some mainstream media platforms that the corporation does not accept electronic transfer and old naira notes for train boarding ticketing at their various passenger train stations, especially the Lagos-Ibadan Train Service (LITS) and Warri-Itakpe Train Service (WITS).
In a statement issued and made available yesterday by the NRC, the Deputy Director Public Relations, Yakub Mahmooda, the transport agency said: “We are all aware of the currency policy introduced by the federal government, which redesigned some denominations of the naira notes that are being gradually swapped with the old naira notes, pending when the transition from old to new will be completed.
“We only accept physical cash across the counter for train boarding with the naira notes approved as legal tender by the government.
“However, on the Abuja–Kaduna Train Service (AKTS), passengers have been enjoying the online electronic train ticketing system seamlessly for quite some time now.
“NRC is therefore appealing to our esteemed passengers, especially along the LITS and WITS routes, to bear with us during this temporary commercial transaction challenges, as we are bracing up to deploy the online train ticketing system on LITS and WITS routes soon, with far-reaching arrangement being concluded for hitch-free deployment of the technology.”
It added: “Meanwhile, we appreciate your patronage and absolute patience before we finally migrate to the online electronic passengers’ train ticketing system in our entire train operations/services.”