The Standard Gauge Railway Phase 2A has been in development for the past three years. The 120km project was to connect Nairobi and Naivasha and it was launched in October 2016.
Today, the President is scheduled to launch the Nairobi-Suswa Madaraka Express line. Kenya Railways has in turn released the Madaraka Express passenger service schedule for this route complete with the pricing.
The new system will be operation as from tomorrow (17th October 2019).
The timings are designed to coincide with the Syokimau Train service, so essentially you can plan a trip from let’s say Ongata Rongai to the Nairobi Terminus and be in time to catch the Syokimau train to Nairobi.
The other bit is the pricing. Kenya Railways charges Kshs 100 to travel from Nairobi to Ngong, Nairobi to Ongata Rongai, Rongai to Suswa and Nairobi to Suswa when you go with the Economy class and Kshs 200 if you go with First Class. They charge Kshs 50 if you travel from Ngong to Rongai on economy and Kshs 100 if you use first class.
Interesting enough, they charge Kshs 100 from Ronga to Suswa but a whopping Kshs 500 on first class. They also charge Kshs 200 from Nairobi to Suswa in economy but Kshs 650 when you use the first class coaches.
There are some disclaimers about the above poster. The timings in the schedule are in 24hr format. There will be no passenger or commuter train services on the Nairobi-Suswa route on Saturdays