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16 Years and Beyond – We Await the Arrival Of Lagos Trains.

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If not for anything tangible, delivering the railway transportation service owned by the Lagos State Government is one of the milestones for which the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu would be recognised. Lagos would become the first state in Nigeria to set up a state railways network as a result.

That honour ought to have gone to Babatunde Raji Fashola’s administration, which made an ambitious endeavour to build the Okokomaiko to the Marina Blue Line. A federal road corridor had to be split up, homes on the project’s right-of-way had to be demolished, a trimodal system of trains, BRT, and public roads had to be set up, and train stations had to be built. As if the services were scheduled to start in 2015, trains have already been positioned on the rail lines.

However, the project was abandoned by the one-term Akinwunmi Ambode administration for unsound political reasons, preventing the suffering people on that axis of the Lagos city-state from receiving the full relief they are due.

The Red Line project, which runs from Agbado through Ikeja and Iddo to the Marina, has been a focus of the Sanwo-Olu administration. With the arrival of two sets of trains made up of two brand-new locomotive engines and coaches, it is hoped that the December 2018 start date for the train services will be realised early in 2019.

1,500 people can be transported on the trains that have already been purchased for the Red Line alone.

The trains alone have the capacity to convey more than 500,000 people per day when the services are fully operational. The general public who commutes will feel a great deal of comfort after centuries of daily traffic nightmares on the highways.

Additionally, it will give those forced to commute by car an alternative, putting a great deal of strain on the state’s network of roads and bridges.

While we applaud the LASG for its dedication to realising this long-awaited ideal, we also draw attention to the necessity of paying attention to the small details that, if ignored, could turn into catastrophes.

The level crossings are the most crucial. These sections of the train lines are where cars and pedestrians cross.

No matter how deep the gullies are, the contractors have not implemented palliative measures to make it simple for drivers to use the level crossings. For seamless use, these crossings must be built with concrete surfaces.

In order to prevent railway accidents, it is equally crucial that the level crossings are manned by trained employees and that the general population is educated to utilise them with extreme caution.

The Red and Blue Lines should be seen by the LASG as a preliminary step in the creation of a subterranean railway system. Within a decade, the transportation infrastructure in a city with a population of more than 20 million people will become congested once more.

Lagos must keep improving the state’s transportation infrastructure to give its thronging populace multimodal alternatives.

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