The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has confirmed that 26 passengers and crew members sustained varying degrees of injuries following a train incident along the Abuja–Kaduna rail corridor on Monday.
In a statement issued on Tuesday via his X handle, the NRC Managing Director, Kayode Opeifa, said the incident occurred at about 9:16 a.m. near Asham Station after a loud bang was heard during the journey.
Opeifa disclosed that the Kaduna–Abuja service (KA-2) departed Rigassa Station at 7:15 a.m. and arrived at Jere Station one minute ahead of schedule at 8:52 a.m.
However, the train left Jere at 8:59 a.m., six minutes behind schedule following the coupling of locomotive 2809 to improve operational resilience.
He explained that the incident occurred between kilometre points 50 and 51 as the train approached Asham Station, when the power car and a trailing locomotive collided with one of the coaches, with preliminary reports pointing to a possible fault in the coupling system.
“None of the coaches derailed, and the reason for the possible decoupling is yet to be ascertained,” he said.
The NRC boss added that the affected components — locomotive 2809, power car BVA0002 and passenger coach SP0006 — were subsequently detached to allow the journey to continue.
The train departed the scene at 9:42 a.m., arrived Kubwa at 10:10 a.m., and reached its final destination at Idu Station at 10:39 a.m., recording a total delay of 38 minutes.
Providing further details, Opeifa said a total of 481 persons were on board, including 429 passengers out of 459 booked. Others included 10 crew members, 26 security personnel, six food vendors, eight cleaners and two third-party operators.
“A total of 26 people sustained varying degrees of injuries, including passengers, medical crew, cleaners and security personnel,” he stated.
On service recovery, he noted that operations resumed later in the day, with the Abuja–Kaduna train service commencing the AK1 trip from Idu to Rigassa at 2:48 p.m., against its scheduled 11:00 a.m. departure.
The train arrived Rigassa at 5:33 p.m., with Opeifa and other NRC officials on board, while a return service departed at 6:12 p.m., arriving Kubwa at 8:31 p.m. and Idu at 8:58 p.m.
The NRC assured passengers of its commitment to safety as investigations into the incident continue.
