As Lagos Blue Rail gets set for roll out
The much-expected roll out of commercial operation of the first phase of the Blue Line component of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) is generating excitement among Lagosians, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.
Finally, the waiting game for the Blue Light rail is over. Well, almost, just 50 more days … or less.
Though the Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had, last December, announced an April take-off date for the commercial operation of the first phase of the Lagos Blue Line, this could not materialise due to the need for the completion of dedicated electricity feedstock, and the need for an elaborate test run of the rolling stock, which started on February 9, this year.
Though residents had begun to wager on the reasons for the delay and some were giving up on seeing the project go into full commercial operation, their fears were put to rest last week when the government announced commercial operation would begin on the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT), from Marina to Mile 2, known as the Blue Line in August.
A cross section of Lagos residents, including the academia, media executives, market men and women, professional bodies, agencies and parastatals of the government and other well-meaning Nigerians, have enjoyed the two-way ride from Marina Interchange to Mile 2, a distance the train made both ways, in less than 25 minutes.
Announcing the imminent take-off of commercial operations, the Managing Director, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mrs Abimbola Akinajo, said residents along that corridor would have the rail as addition to the land and water modes between Mile 2 and Marina.
Speaking at the first Investors’ Forum organised by the agency in Lagos, Akinajo said the Blue Line, inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 24, this year, is Africa’s first intra-city electric rail – Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) by any state government. She said the line would begin passenger operation in August.
She said: “I am happy to inform you that we are rounding off all-testing processes, and are prepared for the commencement of full passenger operation on the Blue Rail in August.”
Akinajo said the first phase of the Red Line (Agbado to Oyingbo) is also nearing completion and would begin testing and passenger operations also in August.
Addressing the investors, Mrs Akinajo said the forum was held to call attention of the business community to the opportunities of using the state’s transport infrastructure for the prosperity of their businesses and for the government to earn income that would enable it to strengthen the existing transport infrastructure and provide more.
She said investors have opportunities, especially in the branding and Out-of-Homes advertising.
The LAMATA Chief said opportunities exist for investors in bus and rail advertising as well as in branding or advertising on fixed assets such as pedestrian bridges, bus shelters, bus terminals and interchanges.
Legacy Project
The Blue and the Red Rail (which is diesel propelled, unlike the Blue Line), are legacy projects which Lagos State, Africa’s fifth biggest economy, is single-handedly handling to improve public transportation and deepen government’s share in public sector transportation across the available modes of road, water and air.
For the government that has been tinkering with increasing public sector share in transportation to take off the road the inadequate, rickety, mini- and midi-buses (Korope and others) considered inefficient have added to traffic congestion in the state.
Since 2007, when the government started with the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) initiative, the government has been providing cheap, reliable, and sustainable transit options for the people.
The Blue line, which started in 2002, however, had suffered financial strain forcing the contractor – China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC Nigeria) – to shift the completion and handing over dates several times, until the Sanwo-Olu administration delivered it this year.
The Blue Line delivery is coming 121 years after the first Steam Tramway connecting the mainland to Lagos Island on the same alignment – from Marina to Okokomaiko, which started in 1902, stopped working on the streets of Lagos.
The coming of the Blue Line would, undoubtedly, recreate the story of rail movement in Lagos and soon, a generation of Lagosians would grow that would be able to tell the rich story of a mega city that deploys all modes of transportation in a sustainable manner to tackle the twin issues of population growth, and inadequate public sector transportation that is safe, secured, affordable, and reliable for members of the public.
To further boost the Blue Line initiative, the French Development Agency (AFD) has developed two interchanges at Marina and Mile 2 for the Blue Line operations. The Marina interchange is being developed into a major transportation interchange that would accommodate the Red and the Green Rail Lines link to the hub.
A Professor of Intermodal Transport, Prof. Samuel Iyiola Oni, lauded the government for keeping faith and completing the Blue Line.
Oni, who is Head of Centre for Multimodal Transport Studies, in the University of Lagos, was happy to be involved in the new train planning and execution. He said the train option would offer the people more alternatives to ensure that transportation is seamless in the state.
Former Dean School of Transportation and Logistics, Lagos State University (LASU-SOTL) Prof Samuel Odewunmi also praised the government for delivering the Blue Train.
Describing the Blue Line as the culmination of grit and determination, Odewunmi said now that the project had been delivered, the government must ensure it is maximised by ensuring that it is affordable by the average members of the public who it was meant for.
“I would appeal to the government to make the train affordable to make riding on it attractive, he said.”
Odewunmi said he was happy that the government considered the take-off of the second phase immediately upon the commissioning of the 13km stretch, adding that if this is done, it would bring a lot of relief to people living along the Mile 2 to Badagry, corridor who have been hard hit by the various road rehabilitation of the government.
Like the academia, economic experts equally hailed the project projected to further unlock the state’s economy.
They argued that the rail systems when they fully come on stream would accelerate growth and enhance transportation in the Centre of Excellence.
Lagos accounts for more than 30 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is equally the nation’s economic and commercial centre as well as Africa’s fifth largest economy, and home to 10 per cent of the nation’s population.
Charles Daniels said the new Blue Line if well maintained would be a go to for the upwardly mobile middle class whose offices lined the Marina-Victoria Island and Lekki axis.
Mrs Romoke Adeyemo, a school proprietor in Iganmu, in Lagos Mainland, said the project would help relieve Lagos of the burden that traffic continued to constitute a drain to human and economic resources of the state.
Noting that transportation is key to economic development, former Transportation Commissioner Dr Kayode Opeifa said the new train would provide safe, secured, efficient means of transportation for Lagosians living along the corridor to move from Mile 2 to Marina.
Opeifa, who is the Executive Director of Centre for Sustainable Mobility and Access Development (CenSMAD) applauded the Sanwo-Olu administration for delivering on the Blue line. He said both will no doubt alleviate the suffering occasioned by reducing the people to one modal transport system which has hindered the state’s exponential growth.
LAMATA’s Technical Adviser, Corporate and Investment Planning, Engr. Osa Konyeha, listed investment opportunities in Lagos state’s transportation sector to include the development of the Abule Egba-Sango Tollgate Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor; (a 7.6-kilometre bus route with a daily projected ridership of over 63,000 passengers).
Also available is the Oworonsoki-Apapa BRT, a 28-kilometre route with a projected daily ridership of about 430,000 passengers.
Konyeha further explained that the government is willing to partner with investors in the refurbishment of 300 non-operational buses and the decarbonization of existing fleet and their transition to cleaner energy, either gas (CNG) or EV (Electric Vehicles).
On rail transportation, the government is seeking partnership in the management of advertising and Out of Homes (OOH) concessions within the stations, including the construction and management of multi-level car parks, skywalk bridges at Ikeja and Marina, while also looking forward for concessionaires for the Green and Purple lines which have a combined distance of 133 kilometres.
Investors would also have opportunity to bid for the upgrade of bus shelters, rehabilitation/construction of the Oyingbo Bus Terminal, construction of Ikorodu and Maryland Terminals and transport interchange facilities at Iju, Mushin, Ajah, Agege, LASU-Iba as well as Megabus terminals at Ojodu Berger, Odogunyan, Sango-Ota, Epe and Agbara.
The Nation Newspaper, Ltd.