By Monalisa Agbata
The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced the commencement of commercial of operations of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line on Monday, December 7, 2020.
This was made public by the Special Assistant to President Buhari on Digital and New Media, Mr. Tolu Ogunlesi through his official Twitter handle.
Mr. Ogunlesi stated that the rail line will not operate at capacity during the first phase as construction is still ongoing. The rail line is scheduled for only one return trip daily, with 8 am departure time from Ibadan to Lagos and 4 pm from Lagos to Ibadan.
In his statement, “Commercial operations started on the new Lagos-Ibadan Rail line this morning. For now, according to the NRC, only one return trip daily, leaving Ibadan at 8am for Lagos and leaving Lagos for Ibadan at 4pm.
“Speed and capacity will increase with time. Keep in mind there’s still some construction work ongoing. It likely won’t hit maximum speeds until the line fencing is completed. Sadly because of some Lagosians’ love for rail-line merchandising.”
Earlier on, while speaking in Abuja at the inauguration of elected members of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CITA) the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari will commission the newly constructed Lagos-Ibadan rail line in January 2021.
In addition, the Minister stated that the $1.6 billion rail project has been delivered and will become operational before the official commissioning in January 2021. According to him the fare will not differ from that of the Kaduna route.