Category: Transportation

Lagos State Government has introduced computerised testing to ensure that only fit vehicles are on the road. Will the facility enhance safe motoring? ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE asks.

For smoky and rickety vehicles, their days are numbered on Lagos roads The government has taken a bold initiative to ensure that such vehicles are off roads. The Computerised testing centre, built at the Operational Headquarters of the Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) at Ojodu will dictect such vehicle.

The coming of the centre signalled the state’s departure from the manual checking. Lagos has become the first among the 36 states and second only to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, to adopt the Computerised Vehicle Inspection Service (CVIS).

Funded by Temple Resources Ltd., which in conjuction with Ibile Holdings established a Special Purpose Vehicle firm – Lagos Computerised Vehicle Inspection Services (LACVIS) Ltd., the facility aims to revolutionise vehicle testing and make it objective.

This, according to industry sources, would help eliminate the errors associated with physical checking of vehicles by VIS officials before issuing road worthiness permit.

In some cases, the  certificates are obtained by vehicle owners, at a fee, without the mandatory examination of vehicles physically by the VIS as prescribed by the National Road Traffic Regulations 77 Cap F19, provisions of the Lagos State Traffic Law 2012.

 

In the beginning

The roadworthiness Test Certificates (RWC) by the National Road Traffic Regulations was meant to be issued by the VIS to both private and commercial vehicles across the country. The essence was to ensure that all vehicles on the roads were roadworthy and were not prone to accidents.

In its bid to make the coverage more comprehensive, Lagos State Government in 1999 separated the test being carried out for both commercial as well as private vehicles and introduced the Ministry of Transportation (MOT) Test, a variant of the roadworthiness test for private vehicles to ensure that only roadworthy private vehicles, particularly saloon cars of over five years from the date of manufacture, ply Lagos roads.

Uninformed private car owners have always taken the VIS to task on the relevance of the roadworthiness certificate. They have argued that the regulation only limited the award of such certificates to commercial vehicles.

Interestingly, such position is in conflict with Regulations 10 and 11 of the RTL 2012, which made it mandatory on all classes of vehicles meant to ply any part of the state’s roads to undergo road worthiness test in order to ascertain their integrity and not constitute any danger to lives and property.

However, the loophole prevalent in the physical appraisal of vehicles, which allowed for manipulation by some unscrupulous officials to obtain the certificates without physically examination of their vehicles, have continued to dog the integrity of road worthiness certificates, which many see as mere extortion of hapless citizens. The certificates rather than exposing any fault that needs fixing in vehicles before it graduated to a major dangerous fault, are being compromised.

 

Statistics

When it concerns the roads, relevant agencies of the government are armed with statistics of fatalities on the roads. For instance, statistics by Lagos State VIS showed that no fewer than 416 died and 2, 498 others injured in accidents on Lagos roads between 2013 and 2016.

To ensure a reduction in this alarming figure, in line with the United Nations Decade of Action for the reduction of road crashes by 35 per cent globally, the VIS is determined to institute a safety system that aims at minimising road crashes and eventual loss of lives. In the first quarter of this year, the agency said it has impounded 3,619 rickety vehicles, which are potential dangers on the road.

Home to 40 per cent of the total vehicular density in the country, (about three million private vehicles and about a million commercial vehicles), Lagos, Africa’s colourful megacity and the Black man’s pride with an above the average vehicle per kilometre presence, requires to double its pace at making the roads safer for all road users.

Unveiling the project, Governor Ambode said LACVIS formed part of his determination to redefine road travels and a fulfilment of his promise of a safe, secure, reliable and efficient transport system.

“It is imperative that in determining roadworthy vehicles, we need to put in place a faultless, human error-proof system that would ensure the state of the vehicles on the road is beyond guess work,” he said.

Represented by the Acting Commissioner for Transportation, Anofi Olanrewaju Elegushi, the governor said it was the responsibility of vehicle owners to maintain their vehicles as stated in Section 35 of the RTL 2012 and the government expects voluntary compliance of the law from all motorists.

He also disclosed government’s readiness to replicate the centre in 50 locations across the state in the next three years.

 

Calls for moderate charges

He urged all stakeholders in road transportation such as the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Lagos Waste Management Authority(LAWMA), Lagos Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (LAMATA), Taxi Cab operators, Lagos Bus Assets (LAGBUS), Primero, government and non-government agencies and parastatals, and other road users to patronise the centres in order to know the status of all vehicles on its roads to reduce carnage on them.

Describing the centre’s inuaguration as the end of an era, the governor said the state was determined to join the league of nations that are committed to reducing carnage on its roads by 35 per cent.

He, urged citizens to embrace the opportunity to check their vehicles and obtain necessary certifications at the centre.

He highlighted services to be provided to include emission testing, beam systems, brake and suspension system and the body.

LACVIS Managing Director Mr Segun Obayendo, praised the government for blazing the trail in setting up the centre.

Besides the Ojodu centre, the Ikorodu centre, he disclosed is also ready, while similar centres are springing up at Apapa, Bolade in Oshodi, Odo-Olowu on Victoria Island and Epe, which will be completed by July.

VIS Director, Dr Hafiz Toriola assured that the fees chargeable for the inspection at the centre is pocket-friendly, even as he disclosed that the focus of the tests for now are commercial buses and newly registered vehicles.

He said the Ojodu centre is a two-lane medium sized centre that could only attend to small to medium capacity vehicles such as yellow buses, saloon and SUVs, while the Ikorodu centre -a three-lane plant, has the capacity to attend to bigger vehicles such as BRTs, trailers, trucks, as well as smaller vehicles such as saloons and SUV.

Similar large capacity centre are planned for Apapa, Epe and the Victoria Island centres.

He said the VIS is planning a Road Safety Week, where it would drum the awareness of the centre to commercial vehicle operators, with a bid to ensuring that more vehicles are availed the opportunity of quality test at the centre.

Speaking with The Nation last week, the Ojodu Test Centre Manager, Mr Rockson Gyebi said though activities are yet to pick, the centre has the capacity to test 200 vehicles daily.

He said LACVIS would be collaborating with all critical stakeholders such as FRSC, VIS and the MVAA, to ensure that only vehicles that have been referred to the centre are attended to after a confirmation that appropriate charges has been paid.

Gyebi, who conducted The Nation round the Ojodu facility, said vehicles are usually taken through three stags of examinations, the first leg of which is emission reading and Beam light checker.

“All our operations have been digitalised, and would take a maximum of 20 minutes where each vehicle will undergo three-stage tests namely: the emission reading, compliance with the Euro 2 engine, and beam checker, to know how effective the headlamps are. Stage two is the suspension/shock absorber checker as well as the Break Roller Test (RBT) to test the tyre alignments and the effectiveness of the breaking system of the vehicle, from where it would move to the third stage underneath inspection by the Axial detector/checker, to check the effectiveness of the ball joints and axials.”

He stated that defects, which are classified as minor, major and dangerous, are imputed at each of these stages into the centre’s database from where a report is eventually printed out at the end of the inspection for the benefit of the customer.

He said while issues such as windscreen wiper, tyre alignments could be classified as minor defects, major could range from lights, breaking and steering.

For dangerous defects, which could be a combination of some or all of these, the vehicle would be impounded until the defects are rectified.

He said the centre does not engage in repairs, but would as time goes on, embark on the retraining of mechanics in the areas of quality repairs on vehicles on the roads.

Gyebi said the firm was contended with offering its services at the least cost in its determination to deepen the contents of safety on the roads.

He said by the end of the year, 13 centres would be established across the state, while similar centres would be established in the remaining areas making up the 50.

The Lagos Sector Commander Mr Hyginus Omeje said the government in bringing the computerised testing initiative to Lagos has left no one in doubt of its determination to rid the state of rickety vehicles as well as reduce  the possibility of errors that may lead to accidents on the roads.

Omeje, who listed the causes of accidents to include human, mechanical and environmental factors, said with the government fixing the mechanical factor frontally, it has reduced the chances of accidents on the roads.

He said if rickety vehicles are taken off the roads, the roads will become cleaner, saner and better regulated, adding that much of the indiscipline on the roads are traceable to drivers who wanted to avoid been caught on the wrong side of the law.

 

Conclusion

Can the LACVIS Centre do something about the high rate of accidents? Stakeholders in the road sector said it can. Many said if the mechanical defects are addressed, a quantum of factors responsible for accidents would have been addressed, while enlightenment and enforcement would ensure the curtailment of the human element for more effective accident reduction.

 

Nigerians are still feeling the heat of recession, though the government has promised them a reprieve this quarter.But for now,travelling from place to place is not easy. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE reports

Is the economy inching   towards recovery? While the bigger picture posted by the government is positive, Nigerians reeling under the recession say the economy is still sick.

To them, the bigger picture matters little because they are disconnected from it. With a high unemployment rate of 13.9 per cent, inflation perching permanently on double digits at 17.78 and interest rate that seemed unrelentingly high at 14 per cent (all indices by tradingeconomics.com), the masses still feel cheated out of the pie of change.

The impact of the poor economy is most felt in the area of public transportation where the low purchasing power of average Nigerians, especially urban dwellers, has impacted negatively on travel patterns.

For instance, it is not uncommon to see many urban dwellers resorting to biking, or trekking to cut down cost of transportation, which reduces people’s disposable incomes.

 

Executive beggars

More appalling is the new trend of neatly-dressed Nigerians, who throng bus stations in many urban centres, begging for bus fares. Many even confidently board the buses and beg for fares from equally-yoked fellows on board; or where they had to pay for the fare before boarding, see how they could get those around to part with a token to get them on board.

The Transport Fare Watch in its report, which covers a wide range of transportation modes for February, such as charge per person for bus journeys within cities, inter-city state routes, journeys on motorcycles (okada or tricycle per drop), waterway passenger transport and air fares for single journey on specified routes,  said the average fare paid by commuters for bus journey within the city increased by 0.01 per cent month-on-month and by 50.42 per cent year-on-year to N122.85 in February from N122.83 in January this year.

For average Nigerians, these increases further eroded their disposable income and exposed them to poverty, deepening their pains of the recession.

According to experts, low and middle income Nigerians, who formed over 80 per cent of consumers of public transportation spend over 45 per cent of their monthly earnings on transportation.

“The pattern usually is that these people, who could not afford to live within the urban centres due to prohibitive cost of housing, go to the fringes where accommodation is cheaper from where they commute to the urban centres, where usually their places of work are situated, and from where they must commute daily to and from work,” a transportation expert, Mr Biodun Otunola, said.

Gaping needs

Otunola, who is the managing director of Planet Projects, a firm getting increasingly visible in providing traffic gridlock solutions and transport infrastructure transformation in about 22 states, including Lagos, said majority of those who fall into this category spend between 45 per cent to 60 per cent of their income on transportation.

“How would a worker, who has spent between N20,000 and N25,000 out of a N45,000 monthly salary on transportation survive? With the erosion of their disposable income, which reduces their purchasing power and further pummeled by a depreciating economy, they are open to temptations which they could leverage to survive throughout the month till another pay day,” he said.

Describing transportation as a first line charge sector, where payment for services cannot be postponed, Otunola said the economy would continue to tilt towards negative growth until the government addressed the gapping demands for public transportation in the country.

Public transportation refers to the means provided by the government to ensure access to affordable, reliable and safe means of transportation to larger populations of urban dwellers to gain physical access to the goods, services, and activities they need for their livelihoods and well-being.

In a journal of Urban Planning and Transport Research, Vol 3, 2015, Taofiki Salau, writing on “Public transportation in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria: analysis of public transport users’ socio-economic characteristics”, said public transportation is critical to cities in both the developed and developing world because it reduces reliance on private car-ownership by providing an affordable alternative for urban commuters.

Demand for public transport service is a direct consequence of the quality of urban living environment, household, community, and social networks.

In a megacity such as Lagos, where 80 per cent of its 20 million population could have make daily passenger trips by public transport, Salau said the active working population has increasingly relied on private cars for all their travels and not just the journey-to-work.

“More than 75 per cent of the public transport users were found to be within the active working age bracket of between 25 and 65 years, majority (60 per cent) of which are males. Corresponding to that increased reliance on the public transport, auto-ownership is low with 52 per cent of the households owning no vehicle, and 26 per cent of households just one vehicle. While these aggregate statistics confirm the extreme low auto dependence of metropolitan Lagos, they mask important variations by density areas of the city and among socio-economic groups. There are important differences in travel behaviour by income, age, and gender among others. Auto-ownership, mobility rates, means of transport, trip distance, trip purpose and time of day of travel vary from one group to another. Such differences can be crucial in designing equitable transport policies at all government levels,” Salau added.

Agreeing with Salau, Otunola said it was time governments at all levels took public transportation provision as a social service in which they ought to massively invest.

According to him, with the nation’s growing population and a rural-urban migration that remains at all high, even the Federal Government, which owns over 60 per cent of all road networks in the country could run public transportation on those routes while the states complement in their various locations.

Public transportation, experts reasoned, remains the “most reasonable way” for the government to redistribute wealth and make more funds available to the low and medium income workers, who formed the bulk of commuters that must be provided with a decent form of transportation to ease their travel demands.

The way to go, according to Otunola, is for the government to re-prioritise policies and programmes. “Governments, whether at federal or state level, must spend more on public transport and less on roads and attendant infrastructure,” Otunla said, citing an example of the city of New York, the United States (US) second biggest city and world’s number one megacity, which has a $24 billion yearly budget on transportation.

Like other sectors such as health, education, poverty eradication, agriculture, which previous governments, especially that of the defunct Western Region, was known, governments must take a cue by adding transportation as key element of the social sector and invest massively in all modes in the interest of the masses.

“The West consciously invested in transportation for the sake of their masses. Britain heavily subsidises tarnsportation such that all tickets are subsidised to the tune of about 60 per cent, while South Africa equally subsidises to about 50 per cent. Transportation is about the only sector that the government could leverage to improve the quality of lives of their people.”

He listed the inherent advantages inherent in subsidising transportation, to include improved disposable income, cleaner environment, and reduction in traffic congestion, improved standard of living, and a more livable environment for all her citizens.

Drawing a particular reference to Lagos State, Otunola said changing the focus of the government from unending conundrum of road construction and the trenchant traffic gridlock for which cost the state about three billion man-hour yearly, about $1 billion (N368 billion), was behind the bus reform initiative of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

Ambode, in February, revealed plans to replace the rickety yellow buses that have given the state its uneviable reputation of having the most ungovernable roads, with modern bigger buses that would address the missing issues of comfort, safety and reliability. The government intends to inject 5,000 such new buses under a N100 billion road infrastructure bond to be sourced from the nation’s capital market.

 

Conclusion

Getting the transportation sector right, according to experts, would help resolve several challenges that have held the nation backward. But it requires allowing professionals to handle the planning, implementation, deployments and execution of transportation programmes of each tier of government.

To get it right, the government, Otunola insisted, must run the sector as a social service and heavily subsidise it for the masses and the low and middle income earners, who form the bulk of any nation’s population.

The template should be right, he said, but it should also be handled by those who know why the government is intervening in the sector. Only doing that would bring the desired fresh air that Nigerians badly need. Can this start now?

It just might, Otunola again asserted, but that ‘s only if Lagos gets its bus reform initiative right. If this happens, other states, including the Federal Government, would take a cue.

The blue BRT operator, Primero Transport Service, has changed the template of travel from Ikorodu to CMS, with offerings to make commuters more comfortable, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

hen a delegation from the Anambra State Ministry of Transportation visited Primero Transport Services – the Blue line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) operator – recently, they were awed by its huge investment and commitment to making transportation more pleasurable for Lagosians.

For them, it was rare to see such  coming from a private concern, enthusing that it would have been better if the company had chosen their state as its base.

For its Managing Director, Mr Fola Tinubu, the praises were not misplaced. As the leading transportation and allied services provider in Africa, Primero Transport Services has taken intra-city transportation to a new height, as it deploys innovative technology in providing safe, comfortable, affordable and reliable transportation alternatives in the state.

With about 900 drivers and close to 1,000 buses, which exclusively serve the Ikorodu-CMS route, Primero, which started operation in November 2015, is arguably the biggest franchise operator in the state.

According to Tinubu, the company is living the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) dream.

LAMATA, with its Strategic Transportation Masterplan (STEMP I and II), designed a modern, reliable and affordable mass transit alternative to resolve the traffic challenge that defied all logic in the past 30 years.

Tinubu said the company was able to raise funds to procure 434 new Euro 2 buses from China, with which it took ownership of the Ikorodu-CMS corridor.

Obviously happy with the company’s strides in the last two years of its operation, Tinubu  said: “We are not where we want to be yet. But we are satisfied that within a short time of operation, we have contributed immensely to the movement of people from Ikorodu to CMS and towns contiguous to them.”

 

Change

 

Change is the central theme around which Primero built its successful operation on the Ikorodu-CMS corridor.

Originally slated to begin in November 2007, the first phase of the BRT began operation on March 17, 2008, but with only two operators – the NURTW Cooperative and the LAGBUS (an asset management company of the state government), on the 22-kilometre distance from Mile 12 through Ikorodu Road, Funsho Williams Avenue up to CMS.

However, with the soar-away success of the BRT initiative, the government decided to extend the service to Ikorodu, a community bedevilled by unorganised transportation system.

With the completion of the Mile 12-Ikorodu Road expansion in 2015, extending BRT services to Ikorodu became imperative for the government.

To achieve this, the Akinwunmi Ambode-led government withdrew the franchise licence granted the first operator – NURTW Cooperative, and handed it to Primero, which deployed state-of-the-art air-conditioned buses on the corridor.

Before then, the corridor, one of the highest commuter traffic routes in the state, has, according to a government source, “remained a wild jungle of rickety buses, despite the introduction of the BRT buses”.

The need to strategically manage the corridor and use it as a pilot for the implementation of the STEMP strategies, the source added, informed the choice of a new franchise operator to manage it.

In its first year of operation, The Nation checks revealed, Primero carried about 50 million passengers.

 

Innovations

 

Addressing a select crop of reporters in his Majidun office, while unveiling some innovations it intends to introduce into the market last week, Tinubu listed e-ticketing system, which the company will introduce into its operations by July this year. This, according to him, will erase the problems some of his customers have with its crop of ticketers.

He said when operational, commuters would be able to buy tickets via acceptable platforms, while an app was being developed for the ease of Lagosians.

“It is our desire to see that we reduce our exposure to risk by making sure that we encourage more Lagosians to patronise the e-ticketing when it eventually comes on stream in July,” he said.

Before the end of the year, the company will also unveil its Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), being test-run by its team of foreign developers. When on stream, the company will be able to monitor all buses on its fleet from the control room and be more in control of all aspects of its operations.

“From the control room, we would be able to know if a bus is slow or over-speeding and control him appropriately. Our drivers would also be able to communicate with the control room where there is any impediment including when they are returning to the yard to refuel. This will put us more in control unlike before and check the excesses of drivers and workers on our fleet.”

He recalled an incident where he had seen one of the buses abandoned on the road, and upon checking to know what the problem was, saw the driver playing Baba Ijebu lotto.

For him, such excesses will abate once the ITS becomes operational.

He said the company has installed wireless local area internet connectivity (WIFI) on its buses for the comfort of passengers who might want to conduct their businesses while on the go.

“With the wifi on board, you can browse your phones, or attend to your emails and be in contact with that crucial business even while you are in traffic in a most auspicious and comfortable environment.”

He also disclosed plans to commence a BRT Television transmission that would be streaming live inside the buses by next year.

He disclosed that Primero had already applied for a licence to transmit transportation tips on television monitors inside its buses to entertain and educate its passengers.

Tinubu added that the company would soon acquire a five-storey parking bay, which would pilot the park and ride initiative meant to encourage more Lagosians living along the corridor to leave their cars at the park and take a ride to CMS or anywhere along the corridor, and pick it on their return.

The highpoint of its innovations on the corridor is the resolve to commence local assembly of its range of buses by September. This, he said, would take off at the Leyland Assembly plant in Ibadan. This would only be for a short while as, according to him, plans were afoot to have a permanent assembly plant along Badagry by 2019.

He solicited more understanding on the new fare regime introduced by the company earlier in the month, to enable it meet its obligations and remain in business.

Tinubu who said the company maintained all the buses locally, said the business being heavily dollar denominated is under intense pressure due to poor foreign exchange.

The new fares, he said, were not to inflict more pain on Lagosians but one decision it must take to continue to be in business.

“We are conscious of the social element of the business we do. We are conscious that we are helping the state government to address the issue of public transportation as a viable alternative that could reduce the congestion on our roads. But we must continue in business in order to be relevant to serve the purpose,” he said.

The Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Mr Francis Ogunremi whose union had earlier petitioned the  governor over the new price regime said the company had done well and should be encouraged.

The activist, who was also at the Primero office with members of his executives, said his union was satisfied with the level of investment of the operator. He urged the company to be guided by the social element of his services and do more for the masses patronising its services.

The labour leader said: “Initially, we thought this company is owned by the government. Now that we have come and have been taken round what this company has on ground, we are of no doubt that the increase is dictated by events beyond their control and Lagosians should continue to patronise them.”

Passengers, who have been patronising the company since it started operation in 2015, said they do not mind the slight adjustment in prices.

Mrs Julian Ashiegbu, who patronises the buses daily, said she had been enjoying the comfort of the buses and wouldn’t mind the little adjustment in fare.

“We all know what is going on and why the company need to increase its fare. However, if you have entered the bus once, you will like to enter again and again as it is comfortable and safe, the ticketers are courteous and the drivers well cultured.”

A civil servant, Mr Julius Adekunle, a regular pasenger on the Ikorodu-Ojota axis said the bus has been a God-sent daily since it began operation.

 

Conclusion

 

With Primero exploiting new vista of services that are already titillating passengers along the Ikorodu-CMS corridor, the question on the lips of many Lagosians is: when will this option come to their doorstep? Maybe as soon as the government takes delivery of the Oshodi-Abule Egba BRT corridor.

Soon, the Danfo will disappear from Lagos roads, courtesy of a Bus Reform Initiative (BRI) being planned by the State Government. The government is eyeing a N100 billion bond to acquire state-of-the-art buses to replace them under the initiative. The move has provoked divergent views, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

When he unveiled his administration’s transportation masterplan last week, Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode left no one in doubt of his determination to transform the sector’s landscape.

Under the Bus Reform Initiative, Ambode said he would replace the rickety ubiquitous yellow buses with 5,000 air-conditioned medium sized (midi) buses that befit the state’s megacity status. This would be done within three years, while interested BRT franchisees are expected to make up the balance.

The governor’s message and body language on the matter were clear: “We must change the way we move around in Lagos.”

Though it seems unrealistic, available data from the Ministry of Transportation shows the rickety buses account for about three of the seven million vehicles on the state’s roads.

In a state whose population is about 23 million or more, where 11 million of them use the buses for commuting and about six million go about on foot, finding an acceptable means of transportation for the common man has remained a major headache to successive governments.

Ambode said he would be injecting 5,000 30-passenger capacity buses to replace the 14-passenger mini-buses.

The bus reform initiative is a three-year plan ( 2017 to 2019) during which he intends to bring in 5,000 new buses. Of these, the maxi-buses, which will take 70 people, will be 30 percent, while midi-buses which will contain 30 will make up the balance (about 3,600 units).

Many Lagosians have lauded the plan, noting that it would revolutionise intra-city travel experience. They said the new buses would reduce the tension, stress and worries and, if supported, would reduce the volume of vehicles on the roads.

One of such is Mr Patrick Adenusi, a safety, logistics and transport expert, who described the move as “another maverick touch by the governor.”

Adenusi, who said the danfos (buses) constituted hazards, commended the governor for bringing buses designed specially for passenger services instead of the locally- fabricated contraptions being used by operators.

 

Beginning

 

This is not the first time the state government would intervene by injecting comfortable vehicles in mass transit.

With a lean population at independence, transportation was dominated by a motley of Raleigh bicycles, taxis, and fabricated midi- vans called Bolekaja – which comprised an aisle body upon which a wooden contraption was constructed for longer intra-city routes.

Transportation was largely private sector driven, with large fleet operators, such as the late Sir Louis Odimegwu Ojukwu, dominating the space with his Ojukwu Transport Limited (OTL).

The intervention of organised operators in transportation services saw the introduction of more ‘modern’ large-capacity buses that gave birth to Molue, which survived many of the state’s roads until the turn of the millennium when the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration unveiled several initiatives that ensured that they were phased out.

One of the early government’s intervention was in the 80s, when due to the cancellation of the World Bank-assisted light rail metroline project in 1986, the government diverted the World Bank assistance into vehicular mass transit and injected 300 large-capacity buses managed by the defunct Lagos State Transport Corporation (LSTC), the special purpose vehicle (SPV) established to drive its public sector transportation.

Though the LSTC failed, from its ashes came Lagos State Bus Assets Limited (LAGBUS), and a much- stronger and adequately-backed Lagos Area Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LAMATA) that spear-headed the state’s strategic transportation masterplan (STMP) since the turn of the millennium.

With Lagos seemingly the third among other fastest-growing megacities in the world at the turn of the millennium (about 10 million population), with a population of 23 million as disclosed by Ambode, there is an urgent need for a robust response that will adequately provide answers to how the state moves its huge, averagely-economically buoyant population.

 

New mix

 

That was why the governor said he would be rolling out a N100 billion bond to finance its numerous initiatives aimed at making the movement of people and goods painless. Of this, the government will provide N30 billion capital to elicit interest, while investors are to make up the balance.

Ambode by concentrating on deepening the roads seemed to have convinced himself to go by the most plausible alternative that caan bring quick returns.

He said: “We decided that no matter the solution that we want to give the traffic management, we must also now provide a comfortable means of moving people, and encourage the middle class and majority of our people to drop their cars at home.” That is the idea with this bus initiative, which is to prepare Lagos to be a global competitor.”

Before Ambode, getting the upper and middle classes of the society to drop their cars and use other alternatives have been at the heart of a strategic transportation planning over the past two decades.

From the era when bicycles made way for vehicles and the roads became less pedestrian-friendly, successive administrations have been trying to introduce initiatives aimed at restraining vehicular density in a state whose total landmass is 999.6 km2.

Some of the initiatives include the construction of roads with improved Intelligent Traffic Control Systems (ITS), roads with appropriate pedestrian walkways and bicycle lanes have been experimented with.

The idea is to ensure that more people drop their cars for public transportation, use bicycles or walk to their destinations.

All these are, in addition to the giant strides being recorded with the incursion of LAMATA in the transportation architecture of the state, have had salutary effect and helped the state manage congestion on its roads.

Unmindful that the new policy will redirect the government’s focus to the roads, Adenusi said the yellow buses were a shame to the state’s megacity status.

Arguing that the buses were not built for services to which they had been deployed by operators, Adenusi said many had sustained severe injuries because of the fabrication.

“Lagos is not poor and if they have the resources, let them spend it. Ambode should go ahead as Lagosians would give him the necessary support by queueing behind the public transportation bond anytime it is listed on the stocks market,” Adenusi said.

 

Not the best

 

So, what happens to the yellow colour of the state? For now, the government has been silent on whether the yellow strip, that differentiates the Lagos metropolitan transportation system from that of New York in the United States, will also be discarded.

The yellow remains, perhaps, the only enduring legacy of the Alhaji Lateef Jakande era. Ambitious as it may seem, Jakande had adopted yellow used in the New York transportation system for taxi and commercial transportation in the state in 1980.

Sources at the National Union of road Transport Workers (NURTW) Lagos secretariat said besides the issue of colour, commercial drivers were upbeat on their lot once the government rolled out the initiative.

Though Ambode had assuaged that fear, saying they would be absorbed into the new system,  retrained and issued uniforms to give them a more corporate image, there is disquiet that their future is not assured.

A source close to the NURTW State Chairman, Chief Tajudeen Agbede, who would not want to be mentioned, said: “We are still watching what the government will do. The governor is talking to us but everything is still  sketchy.”

He said the union would make its position known once it had a very clear view of the policy.

However, a scholar and LSTC foundation General Manager, Dr. Tajudeen Bawa’Allah, said the governor with the volte face might just have killed the robust transportation initiatives of the past.

Bawa’Allah, who is involved in policy planning on transportation in the state, said what Lagos needed was the light rail and that the government should divert the Transportation Infrastructure Bond to providing the transportation architecture the state needed.

He said with the delivery of the Blue line five years behind schedule, the state could do well by fast-tracking actions that could lead to an early delivery of that to ensure that it was responding to the expanding needs of the state.

Arguing that the government had no need getting involved in providing vehicles, Bawa’Allah said rather it should adopt the LAMATA template, show interested bidders the type of vehicle it wants and allow them to source for funds to provide it.

“We have gone through this unproductive route in the past. Let the governor ask questions of what became of the buses injected by LSTC, let him ask of what happened to the ones provided by Chief Michael Otedola. Let him ask of what became of the buses given to the NURTW national leadership to manage under SURE-P programme of the past administration buying vehicles should not be the business of the government. The government should leave the buying of buses to entrepreneurs and use tax payers money or investments from the bonds for the provision of transportation infrastructure that would be there for life.”

Bawa’Allah, who insisted that no megacity in the world ran wholly on buses, said the best way was rail services, both over and underground,  and LAMATA had identified seven light rail routes to ease travel challenges in the state.

“Rather than attempt to reintroduce buses, the governor should have been briefing us on the outcomes of the government’s huge investments on the Blue light rail, which we have been constructing since 2008, and for which the state went ahead to begin a School of Transportation Studies at the Lagos State University (LASU) to develop manpower that would feed the rail line project. The school have produced four sets of graduates, yet there were no rail lines to work on, would their skills be converted to drive modern buses?”

He said the government should take cognisance that some steps had been taken in the past to provide and expand capacity for the state’s 35-year transportation masterplan.

He said the state should not lose sight of the opportunity provided by the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail line project of the Federal Government by also beginning the Red line, which shares the same corridor alignment with the former.

Bawa’Allah said rather than wasting the bond or the N30 billion seed capital on the purchase of buses, no matter how modern, the government should concentrate on properly funding the Blue line to start while efforts should put in place to activate the Red line.

 

Conclusion

 

“Rather than recourse to buses, Lagosians want to know the updates on the Blue and Red lines? What is the update on the Eko Rail, which is supposed to be in charge of the coaches for the Blue line for which the past administration sunk in huge money to acquire? What is the update on the waterways? When would the government conclude plans that will  make transportation seamless? These are the issues that should agitate the heart of the governor right now for which Lagosians are expecting that the state should continue to take leadership, not reversing the process by bringing buses at this stage,” Bawa’Allah insisted.

The commencement of work on the 156-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge rail line by the Federal Government and the imminent construction on the light train system by Ogun and Lagos states, will radically change Nigerians travel pattern, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.

Governors Akinwunmi Ambode (Lagos State), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun State) and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo State), were excited last Tuesday, when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, kicked off the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge rail line.

According to them, the project,  segment II of the Lagos-Kano speed train system, will signal a shift in the travel pattern in the region and halt the man-hour loss to traffic gridlocks, estimated  at three billion yearly.

While Lagos, the nation’s financial capital, which has almost completed work on the Blue Line Light Rail System, is primed to begin work on the second (the Red Line)  along the same alignment with the NRC’s project,  Oyo State, arguably the largest in terms of land mass in the region and a strategic gateway to the North, feels the new N458 billion project will bring it an exponential growth in terms of housing, tourism and agriculture.

His Ogun State counterpart is, however, happy because the boost of the project to the strategic alignment of the new line with his soon-to-take-off light rail line project. It was the second time Amosun would be speaking on the project. Unveiling the project at the first international seminar on the Nigerian railway last year, Amosun had hinted that the state’s light rail project, which would be routed through Berger, Toll gate in Lagos, Sagamu-interchange, Ogere down to Abeokuta will begin in January. But it never did. At the kick off last week he, however, restated the government’s commitment to delivering the project by 2019.

 

Common headache

Moving from one point to the other has never been more chaotic in many urban centres, such as Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states than they have been in recent years.

The perennially bad state of all classes of roads in the urban and semi-urban areas of these states, compounded by the total absence of national transportation policy, which made the transportation sector an all comers affair, have made matters worse.

The prevalence of all forms of motorised vehicles, including motorcycles, three wheelers (keke) and all sorts of mini, midi and maxi buses for commercial activities across the nation, have not only brought confusion to the sector, but stunted its growth.

This explains why transportation experts lauded the Buhari administration, for not only sustaining the tempo of the railway rehabilitation and transformation, which began with its predecessors, but continued to deepen the sector with other initiatives that have opened up the railway, a critical backbone of the land transportation sub-sector, for more participation  of both the private sector and other levels of government.

The construction of the standard gauge, being the third stage of the 25 year-old strategic master plan of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), has been largely possible because of the commitment of the government to stimulating the railway sector.

The revitalisation of the railway has led to a boost in the cargo and passenger traffic. Managing Director of Connect Rail Services Ltd (CRSL), Mr Edeme Kelikume, said the tonnage has improved from a mere 100,000 tons yearly, few years ago, to a little above one million tons and there are projections for 100 million tons by the time speed trains are unleashed on the system.

CRSL is a technical partner with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and has been at the forefront of agricultural product/animal cargo movement from the North to the Lagos Port in Southwest

Kelikume, whose company has had five streams of cattle cargo (about 250,000 cattles) from the North to Lagos, is already upbeat that the cargo freights and logistics sector of the railway is likely going to witness massive explosion when all the projects fully come on stream.

He said more Nigerians are likely to opt for train services  to achieve their inter-state shuttles, while cargo trains, which are experiencing low patronage, would also witness a surge as many companies including petroleum marketing companies, would reduce their dependence on the roads for the more assured cargo train service.

The government sources put the traffic volume forecast for the speed train to be over 3.2 million tons of cargo per year and about two million passenger traffic per month, using 16 pair of passenger trains on the NRC carrier alone. This may shoot up to about five million passenger traffic in the first year by the time the states’ ventures also come on stream.

With a cumulative population of about 33 million people, at least 70 percent (about 23 million) of which would require at least, one form of transportation or the other daily, Lagos, Oyo and Ogun states have the population to sustain a viable, fast train system.

Given the alternative offerings of the train system as a safe, convenient, affordable, reliable, and more dependable means of transportation, Kelikume opined that if appropriately packaged and backed with the right policy by the government, patronage of public transportation with the train as the backbone, may witness unprecedented boom.

Though the House of Representatives is yet to come with its concurrence on the Nigerian Railway Act 1954 Amendment Bill passed by the Senate since last July, the Acting President left no one in doubt about the direction of the government in piloting the sector towards more participation by other players.

This alternative mode of transportation would no doubt relief the roads of its current burden where almost 90 percent of goods and passenger traffic rely solely on vehicular transportation.

The advantages of such reliefs include  increase in the lifespan of all classes of roads as a result of millions of articulated vehicles that will taken off the roads to service shorter inner city routes, availability of more funds which could be ploughed into other sectors of the economy, the enhancement of export potentials of agricultural produce, boost in economic activities in communities along the railway lines, cleaner environment as a result of less pollution by Green House Gasses emission from vehicles, healthier population and improved sanity in the nation’s transportation architecture, among others.

 

Federal/States

At the heart of the Buhari administration is the desire to connect all capitals in the federation with speed train. Though the Lagos-Kano has been segmented into four, with the first, Abuja-Kaduna, delivered after 10 years of its ground breaking ceremony, the second segment, according to the government, would be completed in 22 months and designed to have intermodal linkage with the light rail system of Lagos and Ogun States.

The Minister of Transportation  Rotimi Amaechi said the rolling stocks and equipment for the operation of the line would be implemented along with the project to ensure immediate commencement of efficient service operation. Other components of the project are Ibadan-Ilorin, (third segment), Ilorin-Minna (fourth segment), Minna-Kaduna with a branch line to Abuja (fifth segment) and Kaduna-Kano.

Besides this major arterial gateway connecting Lagos (and the Ports) and Kano, the nation’s two economic and commercial centres, the government according to Osinbajo, would open up 13 other viable routes where comprehensive  feasibility studies have been concluded.

One of such projects, which the government is irrevocably committed is the Lagos-Calabar Standard Gauge Coastal Rail line. Coming closely behind this laudable initiative is Lagos State, which as early as 2006, had identified seven light rail routes to ease transportation in the state.

Captured under its strategic road masterplan, (a 30 -year transportation development agenda), the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (LAMATA), which is supervising the structured interven-tion, has proposed seven lines in the network: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple, Brown and Orange.

Like its Federal Government counterpart, the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) is constructing the 27-km long Blue line in two phases. The first include the National Theatre to Mile 2, and the second from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko section. The CCECC has completed about 90 per cent of the structural work.

Construction of the Blue line was initially to be completed by 2011, but has been extended to the first quarter of 2019, as the contractor had to intermittently suspend work due to its inability to secure funding.

With its $1.2 billion Blue line (which is the Mile 2-Marina) about 80 per cent completed, the Red Line from Agbado-Iddo-Marina and the proposed $1 billion monorail from Marina-Ikoyi-Lekki about to take off, Lagos may be the new hub of modern and fast  mass transit train system.

LAMATA sources, in a technical breakdown of the proposed rail network, said the Red line would begin as a double line at Marina and will run  through Ebute Ero to end at Iddo. It will then run northward via a reverse curve to reach Ebute Metta. The line will also run to Yaba, Mushin, Oshodi and Ikeja. At the Ikeja station, the Red line will be linked by a single line to the international and domestic airport terminal. It will again move as a double line further northward from Ikeja to pass through Agege, Iju to finally reach Agbado.

The Mass Transit Train Service (MTTS) passenger service run by the NRC from the north will terminate at the Agbado interchange. Passengers travelling to Marina, using NRC services will change train at Agbado and continue their journey on the Red line. Some of the Red line section from Agbado will run on NRC tracks.

On the other hand, the Blue line like the Red one, the sources further disclosed, will start at Marina station and to run along Ebute Ero and Iddo stations. From Iddo, the Blue line, running on an elevated platform, will move along the National Theatre station and descend at Iganmu to join the expanded Lagos-Badagry Expressway,  conceived to ease link between Nigeria and her neighbouring West African states, Alaba, Mile 2, Festac, Alakija, Trade Fair, Volkswagen , LASU and will finally end at the Okokomaiko station. One of the two bridges being built for the Blue line is at Mile 2.

The Red and Blue lines will have 13 stations each. Three stations in the southern end of the Red line will be shared with the Blue line. The two lines will comprise 23 stations in all.

The stations, the sources revealed,  will have island-style platforms and commuter payment systems, while public address and electronic information screens will be installed in  each station. The Ebute Ero station will also have an escalator.

Some rail crossings with elevated road structures will be built along the lines, it was further gathered. A total of 35 pedestrian bridges will be constructed over the Nigerian Railway Corridor, while cable ducts and walkways, in addition to drainage system with two walls, will be built along different sections of the lines.

Between Marina and Iddo  stations, according to sources, a  combined 5-km viaduct rail over road and cable stay bridge will be built, linking the Red and Blue lines.

Other infrastructure to be built as part of the project include stations, signalling, control and communications (SC&C) systems; supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems;  depot and workshop facilities;  operations control centre and a training facility to train drivers.

 

Conclusion

All these, like the Vice President said, would drive a new culture of railway patronage. With the crisis of traffic gridlocks on the over-burdened roads, Nigerians can hardly wait to see this happen.