Lagos-Ibadan rail line operational in 2 years – Amaechi

Nigeria’s minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, says the Lagos-Ibadan segment of Lagos-Kano rail line will be ready and operational in two years.

Also to be ready within same estimated period is the Port Harcourt-Calabar rail line. Both rail lines will, daily, move thousands of passengers across the affected cities thereby reducing the current pressure on road infrastructure with consequential accidents and loss of lives and valuable property.

Amaechi, who spoke at a lecture with the theme “migrating workforce: the challenges of mass transportation” organised by the Lagos Traffic Radio (96.1 FM), Tuesday, in Lagos, also directed the Railway Command of the Nigeria Police Force to stop forthwith, the shameful practice of passengers hanging on moving trains.

Hanging on moving trains is common sight in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, where public transportation infrastructure is in short supply to cater to the needs of the ever-growing population estimated at over 20 million residents.

According to the minister, the rail lines, apart from easing transportation difficulties on the affected axes, will also throw up other opportunities including jobs and auxiliary services that will add to boosting the economy.

Amaechi told the audience that the Federal Government planned to open up the rail transportation system to the active participation of the private sector, saying a bill to realise this had been forwarded to the National Assembly and currently receiving consideration.

The plan is to ultimately ensure that the rail system takes the centre stage in the nation’s public transportation space, with the private sector playing a pivotal role, unlike in the past where this segment of transportation was the exclusive of the public sector, he said.

“As families migrate due to employment purposes, they are compelled to move with children who require transportation to attend schools. Where transportation is lacking, the level of distress for the working parents and children becomes increased.

“Studies of the travel behaviour of the migrating workforce in the UK and US for example show that migrants are concentrated in metropolitan areas where public transport provision is high.

“In the UK in particular, 40 percent of the non-EEA migrant population live in London compared to UK nationals. Researchers in the US on the other hand reveal that migrants’ would prefer residential locations that are well served by public transport. The research further reveals that in developing countries, migrants’ travel is strongly associated with the use of non-car-driving modes of travel (public transport including buses, trains, underground/light rail, walking, cycling and car sharing).

“Therefore, availability of efficient and affordable transportation in a location is a major consideration for the choice migrants make to look for employment and places of residence,” he said

Meanwhile, Dayo Mobereola, Lagos State commissioner for transport, highlighting plans by the state to grow the sector, said an inter-modal transportation master plan was already being implemented to link the rail, road and water such that by 2032, no resident of Lagos would need to walk more than 80 kilometres from his home to board any means of transportation.

Mobereola said apart from the blue line rail ongoing on Orile-Mile 2 corridor, six other light rail systems and a monorail line had been identified, with 20 water routes, 14 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and 450 routes for high capacity buses, aimed at changing the face of public transportation in the megacity.