Penalty For Cancellation Of SGR Tickets Raised By Authority

SGR Ticket cancellation and Rescheduling

In February, Kenya Railways Corporation banned cancellation of tickets to mitigate incidences of fraud at its train stations, that turned out to be a big scandal since its official launch in June 2017 by his Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta.

A syndicate of Chinese Officials and some Kenyans had been at the forefront of the SGR ticketing fraud which entailed creating refunds for tickets already issued to passengers on board for each of the four trips and wiring the cash elsewhere. Only for the SGR officials to realize that the passengers who had allegedly been refunded were indeed inside the train ready to travel. Further investigations were conducted and the culprits put behind bars.

To discourage termination of bookings, Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) has increased penalties for cancellation and rescheduling of the Nairobi-Mombasa standard gauge railway (SGR) tickets. Those rescheduling trips will be attracting a new fee of 10 per cent of the ticket price while those passengers cancelling their booked trips would be deducted 30 per cent of the fares, a 10 per cent increment from the previous 20 per cent.

“Rescheduling attracts a fee of 10 per cent of the ticket price while refunding a fee of 30 per cent of the ticket price. It should be done between 48-72 hours before the time of travel for individual and group bookings respectively,” said the Kenya Railways Corporation.

Ideally, an economy class ticket from Nairobi to Mombasa fetches Ksh1,000 while a first-class ticket for the same route is sold at Ksh3,000, meaning those cancelling the trip will be giving up Ksh300 and Ksh900 respectively to the corporation.