So I ran up, through the security check and the automates doors (Aw!) asked and found my way about the ticketing area, through the card opening funky red translucent triangle barriers designed to snag your leg at thigh level should you take your time getting through them, across the new, gleaming clean, chuma platform....and stepped into the train!
Awesome! The platform the comes right up to the train...I remember how very scared I was as a child clambering up those four impossibly narrow steps embedded just under the carriage door...kwani they couldn't use retractable steps!
Wow!
There were green seats lined up against the carriage walls on each side of a wide aisle covered with the same chuma material the platform is made of. The windows were as I remember on the train we took to Nairobi as kids with mum, the top one can be opened by pulling it down. The bottom one is fixed glass...good idea too since the thought of leaning too far out waving to dad as the train left the station and falling out was scary...and the red lever! We were warned never to ever touch it, not even in our dreams, as it would stop the train and we would be sent to jail... It was there! Hidden in the corner but I saw it and immediately recognised it...how could I not? It was the subject of my childhood holiday nightmares many many times...
There was space! Lots of space. And light! Lots of light. It was great. I looked around, didn't venture far into the carriage but spotted two seat behind the door. Perfect! A corner I can settle in and watch everything and everyone from. I sat on the corner seat, stretched my leg and arm across the other, tucked my bag safely next me and got comfy.
This is nice...I wonder if they imported these cabins...ama they are made in Kenya?...but the logo stamped on that corner over there looks foreign to me...hmm. They are so clean! Anyone would be ashamed to litter this clean chuma floor...
But where are the dustbins???
There were a few people on the 9:40am train, (plus it was mid December so I guess guys had started leaving town) lots of space and many empty seats down the length of the cabin. There were even watchies in luminous orange jackets and dark blue uniform hanging around on the platform. I settled down more and heard a voice over the intercom...how cool.
The locomotive was running and with a sudden jerk we were off!
Suffice it to say, the trip was great, the speed was good. Not supersonic, but good. I got to see bits of Nairobi I have never seen before...and took pictures (I asked the watchie who closed the doors and stood nearby to) which I posted on Facebook there and then to prove that I was finally riding the train...I had been getting onto it (in my dreams) since the service started but the 7am train was off too too early for me and the 9:40am too too late plus (the real reason...) I was addicted to my car, you know, the convenience and all...
By the time we got to the Nairobi station some 25 minutes or so later. I was calm, relaxed, cool, un-harrassed, smiling and best of all, on time! Never again will I suffer the foolishity of matatu touts, the quiet buildup of stress and impatience as I sit in a matatu that is 'parked' at a stage by a driver who patiently waits for his conductor to force/beg/convince commuters that he is about to take off and they should therefore fill the empty seats in his vehicle so we can get to town quick! Never again will I sit in a traffic jam, watching the fuel meter indicate how quickly my fuel level is sinking with every few meters as I think of where to safely park the car...plus the 250 bob it will cost to do so, or try to navigate (without hooting angrily) between long slow trailers driving on all three lanes trying to overtake each other (Surely, why can't they just line up one after the other and slowly huff and puff their way to town without stressing us all out!)
I get to brisk walk across town, (15 minutes=all the exercise I need) to catch the 7:45pm train and no longer suffer hot heels across town...those I carry to wear in the office...or not..whichever. Comfort is my end. Guess I have grown up! Or grown older!
That was December. Today, the 7am train is filled, not to capacity though. The bright yellow overhanging handholds along the aisle are not being used yet, but I have not managed to get a seat the last three days. We prefer to crowd the corners and not stand along the aisle...to many eyes...and knees... More and more Kenyans have discovered the convenience of the train and are taking the ride.
Surely, will Kenya Railways not maintain this experience?
Five things:
1. Can I organise my life around the train schedule knowing that the train will always leave on time. Always.
2. Are there plans to expand capacity as necessary to cater for growing numbers of commuters? We are yet to make a stop at Imara Daima and Jogoo Road stations and I do not wish to imagine a time when we will be packed like the Kenya Buses of old where I did not need to hold onto the overhead railing (not that I could ever reach it) because I was held upright by people standing real close all around me. OR maybe increase frequency of the service of number of train.
3. Can they promise that the lights will never blow (or worse) be stolen and not replaced, leaving dark, dank and scary cabins. That the floors and seats, will remain clean and shiny by maintaining the cleaning contracts and schedules they run now?
4. That they will continually upgrade my experience by maintaining and improving service, communication, product and feedback and not let all this run to the ground before we "do this all over again" (i.e. start another commuter train after this one is rusted and long forgotten. I'll be old and grey by then, with yellow teeth and white hair, boring my grand kids with endless stories about the first ever commuter train from Syoki...)
5. And really, they must do something about the Dandora and Embakasi trains...the visual comparison alone highlights and implies vast economic differences. True or not, it is not right. We all pay an amount, no?
