Public transportation in Lagos received a boost on Tuesday with the injection of hundreds of new buses into the system.
The 500 mini and medium buses known as ‘First and Last Mile’ (FLM) buses offer residents a better alternative to commercial motorcycles (Okada) who have been given the last chance to comply with the state traffic laws or face a total ban.
The governor launched the FLM buses, which will be deployed to communities as alternative means of transportation in addressing the security threat constituted by commercial motorcycles.
The 7 to 11 seater buses being assembled locally will operate on 286 community routes. They will take passengers from the closest points to their areas of residence to standard transportation corridors. Payment for FLM services will be through an automated payment system, using Cowry Travel Cards. Cowry Travel cardholders who use them on BRT buses and standard route buses can use their cards on FLM buses.
For ease of operation of the scheme, the state government delineated the FLM’s corridors into eight zones, comprising Ikeja and Ketu (Zone 1), Oshodi, Mushin, and Surulere (Zone 2), Berger, Yaba and Oyingbo (Zone 3) and Lagos Island, Ajah and Ibeju Lekki (Zone 4).
Others are Iyana-ipaja and Agege (Zone 5), Mile 2, Iyana-Iba and Ajeromi (Zone 6), Ikorodu (Zone 7) and Epe and Badagry (Zone 8).
Sanwo-Olu, in addition to the 500 FLM buses, also inaugurated 100 high and medium capacity buses to boost the fleet of the Lagos Bus Service Limited (LBSL) to replace vehicles burnt at BRT stations during the violence that marred the EndSARS protests in October, 2020.
Sanwo-Olu said the mini-busses would address Okada-related crises that had generated widespread concern on safety among residents. Besides, they will offer services which the high capacity buses were not designed for.
The first fleet of buses will kick off the operation of the scheme. The fleet would be gradually increased to 5,000 buses in the coming months, Sanwo-Olu said.
He added: “The launch of the FLM Bus Scheme is an important milestone in our quest to achieving the intermodal transport system which gives our teeming population the choices they deserve, reducing congestion and journey times, and improving the quality of life. It is also in fulfillment of one of the measures we promised as a solution to the security situation discussed at our recent security stakeholders’ town hall meeting.”
A ride on the FLM buses come with a premium insurance policy on the lives of passengers and drivers. The operation and maintenance of the buses have been handed over to private operators for efficiency and turnover.
The private operators, the governor said, will recruit personnel for the management of the scheme.
