Lagos State will begin to wear a totally new face and will be positioned even for further development with the emergence of the Lagos Blue Line and Red lines , just as you have it in the London were such lines as Bakerloo lines, Central line, Circle line, District line, etc
Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has assured that riding on Lagos Red and Blue Lines rail system will be affordable and cost-effective to passengers.
Governor Sanwo-Olu made this known on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television breakfast programme, while speaking on the State of Lagos Infrastructure ON Friday, 28th of January.
The Governor stated that the provision of infrastructure; (construction of tracks, terminals, communication gadgets, acquisition of rolling stock and others), which are items on the Government balance sheet, has limited the factors that will determine the price of riding on the trains to running and maintenance cost, payment of personnel and few others.
His words: “Our administration is willing to extend the cost-recovery period or tenure of operation in order to ensure that fares on the trains will be affordable. Also, riding at peak and off-peak periods may also attract different fares thus giving passengers the option to plan their journeys cost-effectively.
“We are also working to establish a city-to-city relationship with Istanbul in Turkey, a city with similar demography and metro infrastructure, by which key personnel can be exposed to best practices and trained on regular, general and routine maintenance for operational efficiency”.
Speaking further, Governor Sanwo-Olu affirmed that the various projects of the administration, driven by the vision to reduce and predict travel time and ensure convenience for mass movement of people from one part of the State to another, will provide an efficient transport system that will address the State’s traffic challenges.
“There is deep thought to these projects and a strong policy document; the State Transportation Master Plan (STMP), which dictates that a megacity such as Lagos can only be run when all the transport modes are effectively and efficiently integrated and utilised.
The idea of developing rapid transit in Lagos dates from 1983 with the Lagos Metroline network conceived by the Alhaji Lateef Jakande during the Second Nigerian Republic. The initial Metroline project was scrapped in 1985 by Muhammadu Buhari at a loss of over $78 million to the Lagos tax payers. The idea of developing a light rail network for Lagos was revived by Governor Bola Tinubu in the early 2000s with a formal announcement of its construction in December 2003. This initial $135 million proposal was part of the greater Lagos Urban Transportation Project to be implemented by the newly formed Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA). LAMATA initially concentrated on developing a Bus Rapid Transit system, running from Mile 12 to Lagos Island. In 2008, LAMATA began also to make progress with the rail project, focusing initially on the Blue Line and the Red Line.