The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Services are bound to resume next week on Monday, July 13 as the first Mombasa-bound train is set to leave Nairobi.
This is per the statement made by the Ministry of Transport Cabinet Secretary, James Macharia on Wednesday, July 8.
Kenyans in Nairobi will the first to get on board as the train will depart at 8.00am and arrive in Mombasa at 12.45pm.
Those getting away from Mombasa back to Nairobi will then make their shift to arrive at 6.45pm.
The commuter train service shall run between 6.35am. and 6.50pm. from CBD to Syokimau and the last train from Syokimau to CBD.
Operating under this schedule, the travellers will each have sufficient time to beat the 9pm to dawn curfew.
The new guidelines come in handy after President Uhuru Kenyatta on July 6 eased the COVID-19 regulatory measures some of which saw the country at a stand still for over three months.
The CS announced that while the Madaraka Express train services will resume, the vessel shall not carry any more than 600 passengers at ago.
The train shall also consist an extra coach just for isolation for any emergency cases.
The 600 passengers are a sum of just 50% of the trains capacity as per the government’s directives on the social-distancing rule.
The CS further instructed all PSV companies that they file a manifest of all the passengers that have traveled through them as the information will ease contract-tracing exercises in case anyone turns out positive.
However, as for the airlines, the flights are not required to lessen the number of passengers because of the more strict measures put into place for them.
“Because of the complex and robust measures which have been taken for airlines we shall not require them to reduce the number of passengers in flight. You can imagine if we did so no airline will fly because the cut-off point of airlines to break even is usually 75% capacity,” stated the CS.
As such, both local and international travel are taking effect on July 15 and August 1 respectively.
Kenya Airways, Jambo Jet, Aim Air, Boskovic Air and Scenic Safaris have been cleared to resume on Wednesday.