THE 157-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway in Nigeria has officially started commercial operations following an inauguration by President Buhari at the Mobolaji Johnson Railway Station, Ebute Metta, Lagos.
According to the president ‘this vital line establishes an end-to-end logistic supply chain in railway transport within its short corridor, Lagos – Ibadan, as goods to the hinterland would now be transported by rail directly from the Apapa port Quayside straight to the Inland Container Depot located in Ibadan from where it can be distributed to other parts of the country.
Shortly after he inaugurated the project, President Buhari took a ride from Ebute Metta Station to the Energy Nature Light (ENL) Terminal, which is located in the Port of Apapa. He was accompanied by the country’s Minister of Transportation, Speaker of House of Representatives, Governor of Lagos State, the Lagos State Minister of Transportation, and Ekiti, Oyo, and Ogun state governors as well as the Deputy Governor of Ondo and some other government officials.
The Lagos-Ibadan line is a double-track standard gauge rail, the first of its kind in West Africa. It runs from Nigeria’s economic hub and most populous city, Lagos, to Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state, with a total of 10 stations.
With trains operating at a maximum speed of 150 km/h, the infrastructure, according
to the contractor, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCEC), cut the travel time between the two cities to two hours.
This project is the second segment of the new 2,733km Lagos–Kano Standard Gauge Railway line project. The latter is a modernisation initi
ative in the country aimed to replace the existing British-built Cape narrow gauge system, which has a lower design capacity and is in a deteriorated condition, with a wider standard gauge system and allowing high-speed train operations on the railway network.
