THE Lagos red line is expected to cater to a million passengers daily when completed.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mrs Abimbola Akinajo, during a panel session on rail transport at the National Transport Technology Conference and Exhibition, which held in Eko Hotels, Lagos, on June 8, 2022.
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Akinajo, who quoted a study while speaking at the session, said the blue line would also be expected to transport 750,000 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, they would reduce carbon emissions greatly when they begin operations. She noted that the blue rail line would be electric, while the engine of the red line, though would run on diesel, can be converted to electric to tie into the plan of reducing combustion in the mega city.
Akinajo explained that building the rail lines had not been so smooth as the workers encountered many challenges in the process.
She was grateful that her predecessors had keyed into the vision of the rail masterplan with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to allow 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 mentioned that the cost of the rail line and every other thing involved in it was also another challenge the authority faced. An example, she added, was that workers had to be very cautious while building the tracks in order not to destroy public utilities like underground pipes.
She said, “We are sharing track 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 advocated for rail as the best form of mass transit transportation. She said the government was committed to completing all rail projects, as well as the monorail it promised. This development, she said, would bring about more jobs.
In a recent interview, Akinajo had disclosed that the Marina shoreline area of the blue line railway project was 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 by November.
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