POSITIVE RESPONSE TO NRZ COMMUTER TRAIN

The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) is pleased to note that the travelling public has responded positively to the re-introduction of commuter trains in Bulawayo.
More than 5 000 passengers have boarded the City-Cowdray Park commuter train in the first five days of its operation.
The commuter train started operating on Monday 5 November 2018.
It runs from Monday to Friday with two services daily in the morning and evening and the rail entity is charging 50 cents for a single trip.
On the first morning run on November 5, 309 passengers boarded the train.
On the return trip in the evening the number increased to 350.
On Tuesday, 532 boarded in the morning and 537 in the evening.
Wednesday morning attracted the highest patronage of the week with 743 passengers boarding. In the evening the commuter train carried 486 passengers.
Thursday saw the morning service recording 618 passengers while 489 were on the evening service. On Friday 607 passengers boarded the morning train compared to 334 on the evening train.
The train also managed to maintain right time departures and arrivals, thus sticking to scheduled times.
The commuter train has seven coaches with each coach having a capacity of 100 passengers.
With 5005 passengers having boarded the train in its first week, the capacity utilisation for the initial five days is 71 %.
NRZ is pleased and satisfied with how it has managed to service the route conveniently for its encouraging commuter train patronage.
It has also noted requests from passengers who work mainly in the industrial sites who would like the train to leave Cowdray Park earlier so that they have ample time to walk to their workplaces. However, it should be noted that in coming up with the departure times the NRZ is trying to balance
the interests of passengers who start work early and those who start at traditional 0800 Hours as per many companies’ business hours.
The NRZ reintroduced the commuter train in response to appeals from the travelling public who were being overcharged by commuter omnibuses with some kombis charging as much as $2 at peak times for a trip into the city.
N. MARAVANYIKA
MARAVANYIKA
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER
13 November 2018