Efforts to revive the Nigerian railways network got off this morning after a free train service for the public chugged off at the Iddo rail station, Lagos at 9.35am. The trip, earlier scheduled to span between Lagos and Ilorin, Kwara State, will now terminate in Ibadan, Oyo State, due to technical glitches on a part of the rail track. The train has eight coaches.


After 15 minutes stop over to pick security and some staff of the corporation at Alagomeji rail station, the train, moving at a slow speed reached Mushin around 10am. Though many people trooped out to confirm the news of the service, tens of passengers and six journalists finally made the trip. The VIP section, where journalists are placed, is a 98-passenger fully air conditioned coach, with fans, television and other conveniences provided. Passengers however berate the change of direction from Ilorin to Ibadan and urge the railway corporation to work more on its timing.


Some more passengers joined at the Agbado station, and the train now has about 20 passengers on board. The track is noisy, and makes conversation hard.


11:00am: The train is now at the Opo Suru station in Ijoko. The tracks here are newly fixed and it has not been passed in years, except for construction purposes. About 50 passengers joined the service at Ijoko station.

12:00pm: Passengers expressed views that the speed of the train makes the journey better than road one. Farmers and villagers along the route come near the track to wave at passing train.

12.30pm: Spokesman of the Nigerian Railways Corporation, David Ndanusa said the last time a commercial train service ran on the track was years ago.

Train now at Abese station: Buildings at the station are all locked up and the place is desolate. Train has, for some minutes been passing through several kilometers-long sugar plantation.
Now passing by Ewekoro Cement factory. We sight several trailers packed within its premises to transport cement, something the train could now do more efficiently.

12:48pm: Three hours into the journey, train leaves Itori station for Abeokuta. There had been stops at every station along the way.

13:00pm: Train stops at the popular Wasinmi railway station. Excited townspeople trooped to the station to catch sight of the train

Live updates here http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5685052-146/the_railway_is_back.csp



The PDP led government deserve some praise for this.

I'm going to have to try this when I next go.

I agree, the PDP deserves some credit. Functional rail transport is *really* important.

I'm kind of curious about the prices. . . and how much time it takes to go from Lagos to Oyo, Ilorin, etc.

Good to hear

FEE DEE FEE  - pOWER   


hope the train wont stop running after election  - abeg make them remove the speed limit.

Yes, let's praise Yar adua will be happy in his grave that he was able to accomplish this, even for all the money he spent on it.

RIP YAR ADUA --- Come to think of it. This is one of the only things the man has to his 12 Years political record too. I mean come on. 8 years as governor of katsina -- nothing worth writing home about. 3 years as President -- not much accomplished at all -- not until a year after his death do we now see anything remotely ok from him ( the billion dollars in cost is still not something to right home about). I hope his Children will at least be proud that he did this one for them.

^^^^^^^^^^

Yeye dey worry you, see ya face. when e work you praise Yar adua , but when e fail you blame GEJ. very very biased lot.

I can see how people like you will appraise the coming elections. PRAISE JEGA IF IT IS FREE AND FAIR BUT BLAME JONATHAN IF IT FAILS.

^^^Don't confuse me with yourself there! Whatever dey worry you for there, na all your own.

Yar adua is the one who handed over the contract for the rail works and the works started during his administration and were completed on time. That you are too ignorant to update yourself on what is going on in your own country has nothing to do with me at all.

My people say "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's" , not "Steal from Paul to give to Jonathan" or "Take away from the dead so that you can have reason to glorify Jonathan"!

^^^Don't confuse me with yourself there! Whatever dey worry you for there, na all your own.

Yar adua is the one who handed over the contract for the rail works and the works started during his administration and were completed on time. That you are too ignorant to update yourself on what is going on in your own country has nothing to do with me at all.

My people say "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's" , not "Steal from Paul to give to Jonathan" or "Take away from the dead so that you can have reason to glorify Jonathan"!   

Dis your quote na from seven book of moses or book of mommon?

^^ The message is what matters !

Way to go, Jonathan.    No wonder he's got 73% approval in the polls.

The Nigerian people know when they've got a serious person in power.

hahahahaaha 1880's locomotive trains in 2011 

Even obj in 2007 thought we deserve better.

^^ Olodo, do you know even the USA uses locomotive trains till today? They can be very efficient and cost effective.

"Praise yar adua?"
The usual clowns will find inventive ways to be comical!

I posted this on a similar thread:

This is what you call, change! Leadership by example!

Hopefully, the journey to resurrect is fully on track. I can picture heavy goods  leaving the ports for destinitions in the North, Middle Belt, SS and SE. Our railways will take a lot of pressue off our roads, especially the likes of Lagos - Benin, which carries all sorts of heavy transport, from trailers carrying steel to timbre laden logging trucks.

Politicians will always get away with gestures because they know they are dealing with a class of people who are yet to grok what the they were employed to do. This is a simple logic - if you are employed to perform a set of duties and you fail in the task you will be sacked - if you get it right you might receive a handshake. You cannot get that handshake for giving gesture that suggest you are getting it right - I have already said it - until we have at least a bourgeoisie or what i call historic-bloc to put these folks in check - we are just dreaming.  Theoretically, democracy has two features which is 1) Electoral system - which determines how you obtain power and (2) checks and balances - which goes in for how you use power. We have focused too much on the first and gave little attention to the latter.

On the topic - Is this the breaking news? and some goon said "The PDP led government deserve some praise for this". I am incline to believe this is a gesture for April poll and it pains me to see folks caught in this lose trap. Jonathan does not have the ability to do the right thing -

OAM4J:

hahahahaaha locomotive trains in 2011  

Even obj in 2007 thought we deserve better.

What is wrong with trains? Who knows, depending on how fast the train moves, one could live well outside of Lagos and just commute to work:

The VIP section, where journalists are placed, is a 98-passenger fully air conditioned coach, with fans, television and other conveniences provided. Passengers however berate the change of direction from Ilorin to Ibadan and urge the railway corporation to work more on its timing.

Wouldn't you prefer living somewhere inexpensive in Ogun State, catch a nice comfortable train like this to work in Lagos, then return home?

ekt_bear:

What is wrong with trains? Who knows, depending on how fast the train moved, one could live well outside of Lagos and just commute to work:

There is nothing wrong with it, am just saying we would have celebrated something much better if only Yaradua had not cancelled the railways contract obj had with the Chinese in 2006/7

There are some progress not worth celebrating, especially when you realize you could have done/achieve something better within the same period.

BTW, this is nothing new; it is only a reactivation/glorification of what we had in the 80s.

OAM4J:

hahahahaaha locomotive trains in 2011 

Even obj in 2007 thought we deserve better.

LOL. Mumu.

What is the meaning of locomotive?

Apparently you dont know.

Every train is locomotive. This one is diesel powered locomotive. Mumu. Even America/Britain and most parts of Europe still use diesel powered locomotives.

one mopol:

Dis your quote na from seven book of moses or book of mommon?

I dont owe those on cheap drugs any response.

D railway contract ws executed by d Chinese.

According to d OP, three (3) hours after take-off, dey were at Wasinmi station (outskirt Abeokuta). Dt makes it abt 2hrs ride to Idogo/Ifo/Ewekoro, all in Ogun state where cost of housing is abt 1/3 of what obtains in urban Lagos at average. It will encourage opening up of dos communities to d over-congested Lagosians. Quality of life will b improved and easier. But d trade off is having to spend 4hrs in d noisy and haggard coaches everyday on round trip. Then d usual short sighted approach of state govts towards proper urban development of new areas.

Bottomline: There's much we can still do on ds.

Jen33:

^^ Olodo, do you know even the USA uses locomotive trains till today? They can be very efficient and cost effective.

Let me correct you there. The trains you have there are from the 1970's/80's. We are in the year 2010 buying Trains built in the 1970's when we could have easily spent that money on MORE IMPROVED and faster locomotives. So, he is right -- there is a problem spending BILLIONS OF NAIRA in the year 2010, to purchase Locomotives made back in the1970's for our mass transit bus.

We do not have unlimited resources that we spend that amount on building old ideas when we have so many new and improved ideas on what it could be BETTER used for. Imagine if Lagos State spent instead $10 billion in the next 15 years building 1980's ideas of the rail system, would you be here hooraying and hoorahing too?

^

where does your brain come from?

they dont make diesel locomotives again? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_locomotive

I wonder what you are doing on a Nigerian forum. Honestly speaking. You should just ban yourself from coming here. This is my advice for you. you make more sense than all of us here joined together. You should be in the forum for people in paradise. Ban yourself - you are too much for this useless Nigeria.

@kobojunkie, You're wrong. Companies like General Electric still manufacture Diesel Locomotives for the US market. Other nations still making them are Australia, Sweden etc.

The New NRC




A major breakthrough has been achieved in the on-going rehabilitation of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) with the completion of repair works on the 488-kilometre Lagos –Jebba rail track.

The completion was confirmed by a team of officials drawn from the NRC’s Civil Engineering Department, the Federal Ministry of Transport and representatives of the consultants and contractors engaged for the project, who undertook a trial run on the track

Jen33:

@kobojunkie, You're wrong. Companies like General Electric still manufacture Diesel Locomotives for the US market. Other nations still making them are Australia, Sweden etc.

You posted a Metra there, but forgot to add that even Metra is working on upgrading their fleet -- they have been doing it bit by bit. What other Rail lines has the C25 or any other 1970's been recreated for, here in the US? Do tell!

Kobojunkie said:

You posted a Metra there, but forgot to add that even Metra is working on upgrading their fleet

We are also UPGRADING OUR OWN FLEET.


UPGRADING IT FROM [size=20pt]THIS[/size]:



smh

Lagos to Ibadan= 6-7 hours o serious, are the journalist sure the train operated today is not the cargo train instead of the passenger one
some days ago they were celebrating lagos - ilorin now they've diverted to Ibadan  

I will love to ride on it if its safe, no thugs hopping on in the villages and less noisy, they should double glaze the entire coach  

234next better provide a video

OAM4J:

There is nothing wrong with it, am just saying we would have celebrated something much  better if only Yaradua had not cancelled the railways contract obj had with the Chinese in 2006/7

There are some progress not worth celebrating, especially when you realize you could have done/achieve something better within the same period.

BTW, this is nothing new; it is only a reactivation/glorification of what we had in the 80s.

that should be ' we could have' cos we dont know the contract signed, it says upgrade of the national rail corporation over a 25year period
it didnt give time-line for the lagos-kano line and no cost, just involves us handing over some oil acres and $x billion dollars in loans

this is a contnuation of the contract but in sections as the rest were not budgeted for properly

is a 98-passenger fully air conditioned coach, with fans

double double kpao kpao

I remember when we were young - it was so easy travelling from Lagos to Kano on these trains. How many of the people here ever got on any of them?

Nigerians are so negative, no wonder nothing good comes to them. Imagine someone is already bad mouthing it. We rode in it back in the days and we are still living.

So. big deal. if u no like am, no enter am. No be by force.

Enugu,

I applaud them grudgingly (Yar Adua and Jonathan) for this though they could have spent the same amount  on newer locomotives (corruption), if we give Jonathan the plaudits for this, then he must take the knock for the twelve years he has been in government without achievements.

Jen33:

Kobojunkie said:

We are also UPGRADING OUR OWN FLEET.

UPGRADING IT FROM [size=20pt]THIS[/size]:

No, we did not spend any of that money on upgrades. Stop picking stuff out of thing air to win a brownie point or two here. This project has in no way been secret and we all know the decision that was made by the yar adua administration. Google it and read it to save your own soul!

Dis Guy:

that should be ' we could have' cos we dont know the contract signed, it says upgrade of the national rail corporation over a 25year period
it didnt give time-line for the lagos-kano line and no cost, just involves us handing over some oil acres and $x billion dollars in loans

this is a contnuation of the contract but in sections as the rest were not budgeted for properly

did you get new info confirming this?

Nice job PDP!

Nice job President Jonathan.