Forty years after the concept for a metro line for the state was created, the long-awaited commercial operations of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Blue Line System have finally started.
On the train’s maiden trip after operations got underway on Monday, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, was the first passenger.
In order to get back to Marina from Mile 2, the governor boarded the train at the Marina terminal.
On Thursday, Mrs. Abimbola Akinajo, the managing director of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, revealed that the Lagos blue line train would begin operating for commercial purposes on September 4.
Sanwo-Olu would be the train’s first passenger, according to Akinajo’s addition.
In 1983, under the late Alhaji Lateef Jakande’s administration, the notion for a metro line in Lagos State first emerged.
The state’s light rail system was first envisioned and started by Jakande, the state’s first civilian governor, in 1983, with a target completion date of 1986.
When the idea was first conceived, all the paperwork was completed and the contractor was prepared to be mobilized to the site.
But the project hadn’t even started when the then-major-general Muhammadu Buhari conducted a coup.
When it happened, the project was abandoned.
But 20 years after it was first planned, former governor Bola Tinubu opened the rail network project in 2003.
The light rail project’s various phases were color-coded at its opening and included the Blue Line (Marina to Mile 2), Red Line (Agbado to Marina), Purple Line (Redeemed to Ojo), Yellow Line (Otta to Iddo), Brown Line (Mile 12 to Marina), Orange Line (Redeemed to Marina), and Green Line (Marina to Lekki).
During the tenure of former governor Babatunde Fashola, work on the 27-kilometer Blue Line train began.
The rail infrastructure’s design and development were covered by the contract, and construction was to be carried out in stages.
The project’s first phase covered the portion from the Marina to Mile 2, and the second phase covered Mile 2 to Okokomaiko.
The project was not completed in 2016, despite the former governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s commitment when he took office in 2015.
However, Sanwo-Olu promised Lagosians that the project would be completed by his administration upon taking office in 2019.
However, the citizens’ optimism was increased when former President Muhammadu Buhari opened the first section of the Blue Line rail in January 2023.
LAMATA declared that the Blue Line rail would be prepared for operational use in March 2023 right after the inauguration. Later, this date was moved twice, finally starting on Monday, September 4, when business operations began.
Sanwo-Olu emphasized that the project was a promise kept while expressing his pleasure over the blue line rail’s beginning of operations.
“I’m excited, and everyone else on this train is, too. And the commitment was made and kept in this case. In addition to wanting it to coincide with our 100th day (in office), we also stated that we would begin by the end of the previous quarter. This is a component of our 100-day celebration.
Today, September 4, 2023, is a happy day for us since it marks the beginning of our commercial operation. As you can see, all of our citizens are on board, and we can now begin actual passenger service. We’ve been able to set out thanks to our cowry cards. We just left the National Arts Theatre station and are currently traveling to Iganmu. We will depart from the Iganmu station, travel via the Alaba station, and arrive at the Mile 2 station as our destination.
We will all depart at the Mile 2 station since we must switch platforms to get back to the Marina station on our return trip. As you can see, everything has been timed and is in harmony. Because of the large number of people moving, we won’t spend more than 90 seconds—or a minute and a half—at the station. It must transport tens of thousands of people on each route, according to Sanwo-Olu.
Assuring Lagosians that the Red Line rail would be finished by the end of the year, the governor spoke in front of his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, and the approximately 800 passengers who joined him for the maiden journey on Monday.
Sanwo-Olu claimed that the red line rail was roughly 95–96 percent finished and will be unveiled soon.
“The Red Line is currently between 95 and 96 percent complete, and if it doesn’t reach 100%, we won’t commission it. But we are confident that we will commission the Red Line by the end of the year.
By the end of this month or the first week of October, we will begin commissioning all of the bridges, including the Ikeja Along Bridge, Yaba Bridge, Ebute-Metta Bridge, Mushin Bridge, Ayoola Coker, and others. Following the initial opening of the bridges to traffic, we will begin commissioning all of the stations, starting with Oyingbo Station and moving on to Yaba, Mushin, Ikeja, Agege, and Iju.
“We will commission all the stations, and then we will have a final movement, which I hope Mr. President will come to enable us to do before the end of the year,” the governor stated.
