Hellish ride on ‘The Lunatic Express’

No wonder they called it The Lunatic Express. What was meant to be a promotion fun trip for the development of local tourism in the western Kenya circuit turned out to be a nightmare.

The first leg of the tour by train for a group of journalists from various media houses was a delight.

The return trip was a nightmare; as a six-hour journey stretched to 26 hours.

Hundreds of passengers had to endure a hellish ride when the Rift Valley Railways train from Kisumu to Nairobi broke down twice — once in the middle of a forest.

Limped into Nairobi

The passengers waited in the train while replacement engines were brought in. A journey that started at 4am on Monday in Kisumu only ended on Tuesday morning when the locomotive limped into Nairobi.

The fiasco started at Kisumu when departure was delayed from 7pm on Sunday to 4am on Monday.

The first delay was caused by an accident involving an oil tanker and a train engine at a railway-crossing in Kisumu on Sunday evening. RVR technicians spent hours repairing the engine.

Although the railway officials assured travellers that the problem would be fixed in a few hours, that was not to be.

An hour gave way to another; hunger pangs started biting; the midnight cold set in, and both the children and the older passengers fought off sleep in the cold second and third class cabins.

Those strong enough braved the cold and the hunger by singing and listening to impromptu sermons.

The group of journalists on a domestic tourism promotion trip were lucky to have been booked in the comfort of the first class cabins, which had a room for each passenger, complete with a warm comfortable bed, a restaurant and toilets.

But a walk to the other sections of the train where “the masses” were, referred to as “wananchi class”, revealed stark contrasts.

It was cold; children slept uncomfortably on the seats; some women slept on lesos spread on the floor; and a strong stench of urine hung in the air.

“These people took our money yet they knew the train was not ready for the journey. I have been in this train since 3pm. Why only us? ” a passenger, who had seen us with a camera, complained.

So, when the train finally set off in the wee hours of Monday, it was a relief, especially for the “wananchi”. Those that had slept on the floor got up took up their seats.

But the relief would be short-lived. Around 8am (Monday), the train ground to a halt after Fort Ternan station, at a section where the railway line lies at the bottom of a valley, with a forest escarpment on either side.

Passengers tried making phone calls but the area did not have any mobile network coverage.

After hours of hopelessness in the middle of the forest, an official on aboard informed the Nairobi station that the train had stalled; and another engine was sent to the rescue from Fort Ternan.

But the rescue did not come that fast. When it finally arrived, it was attached at the rear end and started pulling the train back to where we had come from!

Passengers were told that the replacement engine could not haul the train all the way to Nairobi and could only tow it back to Fort Ternan where another engine would be fixed.

And the journey took reverse gear. At Fort Ternan, the engine that had returned us was removed, another one fixed and the forward gear was engaged.

Misfortune struck

On reaching Molo, another misfortune struck. The replacement engine had “poured out all the water” and it had overheated. The remedy initially meant simply waiting while the engine cooled off. Later, it was decided to despatch another engine from Nakuru station.

That was around 3pm, and another round of waiting. Some passengers who were transporting sacks of fresh farm produce decided enough was enough.

They alighted and intercepted Nairobi-bound matatus from the nearby road, loaded their wares and jumped in.

When the new engine from Nakuru arrived and got fixed to the train, it was around 5pm. The new leg of the journey form Molo started.

It was around midnight when the tired passengers reached Nakuru, and another six hours before the weary souls woke up at the Nairobi Railway Station around 6am, Tuesday. That was 25 hours after departure from Kisumu, not counting the initial eight-hour delay.