The Lagos red line is expected to cater to a million passengers daily when completed.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mrs Abimbola Akinajo, during a panel session on rail transport at the National Transport Technology Conference and Exhibition held at Eko Hotels, Lagos on June 8, 2022.
Akinajo, who quoted a study while speaking at the panel session, said that the blue line would also be expected to transport 750,000 passengers daily. She said, “A study has been conducted on the red line that it should serve a million passengers while the blue line should serve 750,000 passengers a day.”
The LAMATA boss also noted that the rail lines would not only be sustainable but would reduce carbon emissions greatly when they begin operations. She noted that the blue rail line would be electric and though the red line have diesel engines, the engines can be converted to electric to tie into the plan of reducing combustion in the mega city.
Akinajo stressed that building the rail line has not been so smooth, as they have encountered challenges. She was however grateful that her predecessors had tied into the vision of the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s rail masterplan, thus allowing seamless operations. She said, “Lagos is a small land area and it is highly populated. The first challenge is securing the right of way. However, securing your corridor is a big challenge.”
She also stressed that the cost of the rail line and every other thing involved is another challenge that the authority has faced. She said that while building the track, they were careful not to destroy public utilities like underground pipes laid beneath the earth. Giving more details about the rail, she said, “We are sharing tracks with the NRC on the red line from Agbado to Ebute Meta, and then, we would be building our own independent track from Ebute Meta to Oyingbo. The final one is when we move from Oyingbo to Marina.”
The LAMATA boss went on to canvass for rail as the best form of mass transportation. She said that the government was committed to completing all rail projects as well as the monorail that was promised. She added that this development would bring about more jobs.
In a recent interview, the LAMATA MD had disclosed that the Marina shoreline area of the blue line railway project is at 85 per cent completion. She said that all the piers would be completed between June and July 2022, while all the tracks would be laid in readiness for the final completion stages by November.
