Passenger train services on the modernised standard gauge rail tracks will begin anytime this month as Vice President is billed to inspect from the DK 23 Agbado Lagos to DK 79 Abeokuta completed section of the $1.6.billion Lagos-Ibadan rail project next week Wednesday.
Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi disclosed to journalists last Friday during the regular project inspection tour that preliminary commercial passenger train service on the new standard gauge corridor would enable Agbado to Abeokuta residents work and do business using the service.
According to the minister “I am impressed and from what I see, the Vice President is still going to ride on the train on February 6, except if he has other official our political engagements. Once the Vice Presidents flags it off, we will start using it and it will be free. The free ride will be for two months”.
When operational, the Agbado to Abeokuta service will reduce passenger travel time from one hour to 45 minutes and the reason for that stretch of time is because people might stop in different locations.
The former Rivers state governor maintained that the flag off of the lagos- Abeokuta passenger service has nothing to do with the forth coming general election rather, to decongest Lagos traffic and make live easy for Nigerian citizens
On other pending issues concerning litigation and compensation, Amaechi there said “there is none but if there is any, it will be inside the yard of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and there is one building that we are yet to pay compensation but it is not in court and we are still negotiating the compensation”.
The Minister said “what gives me joy most with this project is the fact that Nigerians can travel from Lagos to Abeokuta in less than one hour”.
As at the time of filing this report, two coaches are the corridor his corridor, but the Federal Government have directed that more coaches be brought from Itakpe-Warri since the passenger traffic on that corridor is not as high as what should be expected on the new corridor.
On what will become of the Abeokuta to Ibadan axis, he said: “From what they told me, they think it will be quicker because the problem is always the civil work and they have gone far with it”.
“The only problem they have is that they have to blast rocks and that is what they are doing now to make sure that before the end of June, it will be ready.
“What will be the problem is not the tracks,, but the stations and the communication systems. It will be difficult if it is a two way traffic but we are avoiding that till we install the communication systems”. The minister assured.
