The China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) has blamed ill luck for the frequent malfunctioning of trains it built and supplied for use in Nigeria.
CRCC after-sales manager Su Zhiguang, who heads the maintenance team on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line said the trains, which arrived in Nigeria in January, were test run and certified ready for deployment in China, Peoples Gazette Reports.
Over the past few weeks, at least three trains had broken down after suffering mechanical failures in quick succession, leaving many passengers stranded in isolated areas.
A video, which went viral on November 26, showed passengers aboard a Kaduna-Abuja train voicing their displeasure, shortly after the locomotive broke down in dark hours along a route that is widely dreaded for kidnapping and other violent crimes.
When asked why the trains were frequently breaking down only a few months after they were commissioned, the CRCC engineer said: “It’s hard to say, maybe bad luck because the trains were newly built and certified okay by our company in China before they were sent to Nigeria in January.”
“In my many years of experience in after-sales service, this situation is the first I’m seeing,” Mr. Zhiguang said.
“2701 and 2702 locomotives are produced by our company (CRCC). In China and other countries, we don’t have so many problems (mechanical faults). We’ve built trains that are still under our warranty and functioning for several years. There shouldn’t be too many problems with new locomotives”.
Mr. Zhiguang, however, told the Gazette that CRCC may extend the warranty window for the trains’ maintenance as compensation for the frequent mechanical glitches.
“We may sign a new contract to delay expiration of the warranty to compensate for the issues we are having with the locomotives,” the official said, adding that the company would consult with Chinese international contractor, CCECC, to decide on extending the one-year maintenance warranty.
