Inter-City delays irritates passengers

Broken rails and sometimes abandoned corpses on the railway are to blame.

For close to two months now, the lone non-stop passenger train that links Yaounde to Douala has been witnessing delays in the departure and arrival time. Since inauguration in early May 2014 by the Head of Government, Philemon Yang, and the Chief Executive Officer of Bolloré Africa Logistics, Dominique Lafont, the departure time from Douala was slated at 6am and 2:45pm and from Yaounde at10am and 7:20pm.

Unfortunately, commuters now undertake the close to 265km journey in seven hours which is supposed to be covered in 3h40min.

A group of disgruntled passengers, who nearly created an ugly scene in Douala, waited for the train at 2:45pm on Monday 9 and only boarded the train at few minutes after 7pm. While waiting for the train, most passengers expressed their anger and vowed never to travel through it while some left for other inter-urban transport agencies.

According to a parent of an adolescent who came to pick up the child at the rail station, she waited for more than three hours with others who came for the same reason only to be informed an hour before their arrival that the train had a problem along the rail.

To her, security, safety and rare accident cases made her embraced Intercity unconditionally. Today, she is having a second thought about the prestigious company though it still remains the safest for now.

Another commuter who waited for the train on Sunday 8th, in Yaounde, said instead of 7:20pm departure time, the train left Yaounde few minutes after 12 midnight and arrived at Douala at 5am Monday 9th, instead of reaching at 11pm that same Sunday.

Most delays are blamed on broken rails, collision of two trains and at times an abandoned corpse on the railway. Whatever the case, commuters hold that the railway should be reinforced and old coaches replaced in order to maintain old customers and gain new ones.