Want to travel to Mombasa? book Madaraka Express 30 days in advance

Madaraka Express Inter-County Service train leave after its flagged off by Transport CS James Macharia at SGR Nairobi Terminus

MOMBASA, KENYA: Those seeking to travel to and from Mombasa using Madaraka Express will as of today be required to book their tickets 30 days in advance.

Previously travellers were required to book 14 days in advance.  

In a communiqué issued yesterday, Kenya Railways Managing Director Atanas Maina said the change was geared towards streamlining the service, meeting the growing travel demands and improving customer experience.

He maintained that Kenya Railways was committed to continuously identifying and instituting measures that would meet the demands of the ever increasing customer base.

"Travellers on the Madaraka Express Passenger Service can purchase a ticket by dialing *639# on a Safaricom line, follow outlined steps as prompted by the system and pay by M-Pesa," he said in the statement .

Mr Maina said that the USSD payment solution enables one to check availability of tickets on a particular date and allows a traveller to buy a maximum of five tickets in one transaction.

"Tickets can also be purchased over the counters at the respective departing stations. As a result of the adjustment in the advance ticket booking window, group bookings will now be done 32 days to the travel date and not 16 days as has been," he said.

The service which has been in operation for seven months has proved to be quite popular with travellers especially during the festive season, with the train being fully booked during this period.

To date, approximately 660,106 passengers have used the train which operates between Mombasa and Nairobi while making seven stops.