Officials in Lagos say they’ve started conducting trials on the Lagos Blue Line, a rail service that will operate for a total of 13 kilometers.
Abimbola Akinajo, managing director of the Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), made this announcement on Monday when the first test runs were conducted in Lagos from Marina to Mile 2.
Before starting full train operations in April, Akinajo stated the experiment would run between 2 and 3 months so that Lagos residents could take advantage of the free rides. Over the next two months, you may use the train for free three times a week as part of a trial run.
The LAMATA director promised that the trial runs will occur three times each week for the following two months.
She said that everyone in Lagos is welcome to ride the test train and experience its amenities for themselves.
Anyone from the market crowd to craftsmen to students to journalists to businesspeople is welcome to ride the train for free. Send your email address to LAMATA and we’ll get you booked on the free train ticket within a week.
As she sees it, train travel is more complex than taking the bus for a variety of reasons.
Before starting commercial operations, she said, “we must assure we put them in top form.”
She emphasized that the authority wanted to hear from all walks of life, including business owners, college students, and teachers and students from elementary and secondary institutions, during the trial run before launching the service for the general public.
Trains will operate daily from 5:30 am until 11:30 night.
Akinajo said that the APU could handle 250 people per minute, and each train was scheduled to depart every three minutes.
She said, “Depending on the availability of rolling equipment, the first phase of the Blue Light train will be able to transport between 200,000 and 250,000 people daily.”
The government has already bought three rolling stocks, and after the second phase is finished, they may buy another six.
Daily business hours would be from 5:30 am to 11:00 pm. It takes three minutes to operate a train on this system. We plan to run extra trains during peak hours and cancel the service altogether during less busy times.
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She said that, given the present state of the nation, the administration was still working on the template that would make the train affordable to the people.
According to the LAMATA director, the government has not yet established the fee, but when it does, it will make sure it fairly reflects current costs and is accessible to locals.
On January 24, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the first segment of the Blue Rail Line in Lagos State (between Marina and Mile 2).
Commissioning the project at the Marina Train Station in Lagos with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, was the President.
Phase 2 of the project, extending from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko, was officially launched in front of the President.
As part of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit, the Blue line would go 27.5 kilometers from Marina to Okokomaiko, stopping at 13 different stops along the way. The whole trip will take passengers 35 minutes. There will be no level crossings or unrestricted access for people or cars along the Blue Line’s entire route since it will run on a dedicated, private right-of-way.
