Government to start commuter trains to ease traffic on Thika Rd.

State Department for Housing and Urban Development PS Charles Hinga

The government has procured new commuter trains to start operating along the Thika-Nairobi route in its latest efforts to ease traffic on the Thika superhighway.

The trains will be making regular stopovers at newly constructed substations of Mwiki, Githurai and Ruiru every 30 minutes.

This was revealed by State Department for Housing and Urban Development PS Charles Hinga who said that the government had already injected Sh. 360 million to construct the Githurai link between Thika Superhighway and the Githurai railway substation.

“With this mass transit system in place, we will be creating more business opportunities where our people will be able to visit market centres and head home with ease. We want the Nairobi-Mwiki-Githurai and Ruiru areas to enjoy 24-hour economies,” he said.

He welcomed the installation of floodlights by Kiambu County government within Githurai that will see traders work in shifts.

Rapid urbanisation has witnessed the emergence of uncoordinated growth that has left many centres and towns around Nairobi crowded as local investors constructed haphazard structures for newcomers.

This has created new challenges on waste disposal, sewerage and drainage connections as well as unending congestion at bus stops and traffic on link roads due to a lack of mass transit services.