Kenya Railways has announced a temporary disruption of its online ticket booking platforms for the Madaraka Express Passenger Service, affecting customers attempting to purchase tickets electronically.
In a public notice dated January 24, 2025, the railway corporation revealed that they are experiencing technical challenges with their digital booking channels.
The disruption is affecting the Madaraka Express train service website, which was launched in January 2018.
“We are currently experiencing a technical challenge with our booking platforms. As a result, customers are unable to purchase tickets online. Our technical team is addressing the issue and we anticipate normalcy will be restored as soon as possible,” part of the statement read.
While issuing an apology, Kenya Railways further advised affected passengers to purchase tickets over the counter at the nearest passenger service station to facilitate their travel arrangements.
“In the meantime, customers are advised to purchase tickets over the counter at the nearest Madaraka Express Passenger Service station. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused,” Kenya Railways added.
Number of trips
The Madaraka Express Passenger Service offers two types of train service: intercounty trains and express trains, each making two round trips a day.
The Intercounty train runs in the morning and makes stopovers in Athi River, Emali, Kibwezi, Mtito Andei, Voi, Miasenyi and Mariakani county stations.
The inter-county train departs Mombasa at 8:00 am and takes five hours, 42 minutes arriving in Nairobi at 1:42 pm. The morning train departs Nairobi at 8:20 am and takes five hours, 48 minutes arriving in Mombasa at 2:18 pm.
From Mombasa, it departs at 3:15 pm and takes five hours arriving in Nairobi at 8:15 pm, while from Nairobi the afternoon train departs Nairobi at 2:35 pm and takes four hours, 43 minutes arriving in Mombasa at 7:18 pm.
Previous incidences
On April 19, 2023, Kenya Railways announced that it was unable to issue tickets to its customers after a system failure.
In a notice released then, the corporation announced that passengers were not able to book the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Madaraka Express train tickets online.
They attributed the challenges were due to a technical hitch that affected the online ticketing system.
