Hundreds of passengers on Sunday, September 12 were stranded after the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) system failed affecting online booking.
In a statement, the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) announced that SGR online booking system had failed and those willing to travel should book tickets over the counter.
This means that all those who had plans of travelling today but needed to book tickets will not make it through its digital platform or through the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) payment method.
“Anyone willing to book a ticket should do so over the counter at the nearest Madaraka Express Service Station. Efforts to restore normalcy are ongoing. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and will advise once normal services are restored,” the statement read in part.
The statement was released amidst protests by a number of travellers who took to their online platforms telling off Kenya Railways over the failure to secure the tickets so as they can travel over the weekend.
It has also emerged that the company could not be reached through its customer care hotline as their calls went unanswered.
This is not the first time such an incident has taken place. On August 5, travellers were unable to book tickets after Kenya Railways experienced yet another system failure.
Similar to today’s incident, those travelling were asked to book tickets physically by visiting their offices.
Building the SGR cost taxpayers ksh360 billion and it was aimed at providing services to civilians at a quick pace compared to road transport.
Many people prefer using SGR as it is considerably cheap and timely.
