If you bought a nokia 3310 today in a world were smart phones are the norm, will that be a cause for you to celebrate or beat your chest about?

So it is with the recent rail revitalization project of the jonathan administration, in a world of high speed rail lines, the jonathan government has spent and is still spending billions of naira on rehabilitating colonial era rail tranks and buying "LOCOMOTIVES" to run on them.

Recntly, the lagos-kano rail line was opened and the nigerian government beat their chest to the world that the nigerian rail sector is back so as expected BBC world news came to withness the new wonder of the world. BBC reporter komla dumor took a train ride from lagos to kano and it took him 22 hours to get there and the coaches were crowded and hot. One commentator called it a "cargo train". And it raised questions about how a country that aims to be an economic powerhouse have such a disfunctional internal transport system? How is it possible that it takes more than a whole day for people,goods and services to move within a country the size of califonia plus texas.

Nigerias don't deserve 20th century locomotives. Nigeria deserves a high speed rail network connecting essential cities. This is the approach this government should have taken. All the money being spent currently could have gone a long way combined with investments from the private sector to fund a high speed rail network from port harcourt to lagos and kano. Even if the government could not find foreign or local private investment, this country can afford to fund such a project by itself. Can you imagine the possibility of travelling between port harcourt to lagos in 3 to 5 hours, can you imagine living in ogun state and working in lagos? Imagine what that will do for the economy, the fast and mass movement of people, goods and services, the relief on nigerian roads, even the massive revenue it will bring in for the government.

Now, my all i have articulated above are open to debate. But they are my candid feelings on the "transformation agenda"...the jonathan administration is all over the place and that has made pointing at a specific area and say gee, they have really tried in this area. It's sad due to the high hopes nigeria had for the guy with fresh air.

Your position is not far from the truth. In fact it is the way a forward-looking and thinking government should approach problems - wholistic approach rather than a quick-fix one with no hope of efficiency and sustainability. I'm not aware that the trains are locomotive but If what you have written about the project is correct, then it's no more than another waste of our resources disguised as infrastructural development.

Nigeria, which way now?

The journey of a thousand miles begins wit one step. Countries using fast rail didnt start from there.They also started from d locomotive. It wil not b out of place if someone else introduces the speed train after Jonathan's govt, remember there was none wen he took office.

koikoi2: The journey of a thousand miles begins wit one step. Countries using fast rail didnt start from there.They also started from d locomotive. It wil not b out of place if someone else introduces the speed train after Jonathan's govt, remember there was none wen he took office.

So if the excuse is that there was none before he took office, why bother fixing it if this fix does not take into account the future? Anything worth doing is worth doing well, shouldn't any retardeen human being know that already? Trains were already running in Lagos before 1900 that is more than 110 years ago, is there any country you can show me in this world who have had the same trains and transportation ideas for 110 years? Put it beside the population growth, the billions of dollars the FG is earning from oil sales, and the stupidity of this kind of decision becomes clearer!

some people are good at making excuses for mediocrity

koikoi2: The journey of a thousand miles begins wit one step. Countries using fast rail didnt start from there.They also started from d locomotive. It wil not b out of place if someone else introduces the speed train after Jonathan's govt, remember there was none wen he took office.

yes, the journey of a thousand miles does start with a step but the question is how great a step? Is the step a pace or a stride? If you use your logic then nigeria will never be an advanced nation because it will always be behind the greats. Do you know what new technology will evolve when jonathan leaves office? But that is when nigeria will think of building high speed rail when to the outside world, it's old.... technology. Your fathers first phone must have been a land line but if you wanted to buy your first phone in the year 2013, will it also be a land line?

We have to start from somewhere but like a typical Nigerian politician, the refurbished trains are more of a campaign tool than the solution to a problem.
The trains should have been strictly cargo. In that way, they make money to expand why reducing the trucks on the road.
It must be said though that there are certain areas that need long term planning and rail transport is one of them.

A-ZeD:
We have to start from somewhere but like a typical Nigerian politician, the refurbished trains are more of a campaign tool than the solution to a problem.
The trains should have been strictly cargo. In that way, they make money to expand why reducing the trucks on the road.
It must be said though that there are certain areas that need long term planning and rail transport is one of them.

thank you very much. Your observation i think is what caused the BBC commentator to call it "a cargo train used to transport people"

In Port Harcourt, Amaechi is building a monorail that will start from Station bustop to terminate at Eleme junction. It was supposed to be in Partnership with a Chinese firm. The govt was to bring 30% and the chinese firm with the remaining 70%. Do you know, this Chinese firm pulled out citing financial breakdown, after the state govt has already fufill 10% of is it's bargain. The 40km rail project now became a sham to Rivers State people. Monorail is a very expensive project which requires funds from partners. The dilenma now, should the state govt withdraw or continue. If they does the former, all hell will let lose by the opposition since he was warn not to venture into the project from onset. And if he does the latter, it requires enough finance cos 1 column is equal to N800m. Amaechi been a stubborn man refused to back down. Instead he concluded he will terminate the project at waterlines. But, can he pick the project from UTC bustop to Waterlines? That is another question that need answers. So far out of the 39km initial plan, he has decided to complete 10km before leaves office single handedly since the Chinese firm pulled out. So far, he has been able to cover 4.5km. Can he achieved the remaining 5.5km in 2years? Is that what Jonathan should do?

kel4soft: In Port Harcourt, Amaechi is building a monorail that will start from Station bustop to terminate at Eleme junction. It was supposed to be in Partnership with a Chinese firm. The govt was to bring 30% and the chinese firm with the remaining 70%. Do you know, this Chinese firm pulled out citing financial breakdown, after the state govt has already fufill 10% of is it's bargain. The 40km rail project now became a sham to Rivers State people. Monorail is a very expensive project which requires funds from partners. The dilenma now, should the state govt withdraw or continue. If they does the former, all hell will let lose by the opposition since he was warn not to venture into the project from onset. And if he does the latter, it requires enough finance cos 1 column is equal to N800m. Amaechi been a stubborn man refused to back down. Instead he concluded he will terminate the project at waterlines. But, can he pick the project from UTC bustop to Waterlines? That is another question that need answers. So far out of the 39km initial plan, he has decided to complete 10km before leaves office single handedly since the Chinese firm pulled out. So far, he has been able to cover 4.5km. Can he achieved the remaining 5.5km in 2years? Is that what Jonathan should do?

the federal republic of nigeria should be able to review the capabilities of any partner they want to do buisness with. If they cannot find any suitable partner, the federal republic of nigeria that pays it's legislators over 30 million, where a minister spends 2 billion on travels, where a president spends 1 billion on food, can single handedly complete that kind of rail from port harcourt to lagos and then use the overwheaming revenue gotten from it to construct the lagos-kano phase.

Symphony007:
So it is with the recent rail revitalization project of the jonathan administration, in a world of high speed rail lines, the jonathan government has spent and is still spending billions of naira on rehabilitating colonial era rail tranks and buying "LOCOMOTIVES" to run on them.

Recntly, the lagos-kano rail line was opened and the nigerian government beat their chest to the world that the nigerian rail sector is back so as expected BBC world news came to withness the new wonder of the world. BBC reporter komla dumor took a train ride from lagos to kano and it took him 22 hours to get there and the coaches were crowded and hot. One commentator called it a "cargo train". And it raised questions about how a country that aims to be an economic powerhouse have such a disfunctional internal transport system?

How is it possible that it takes more than a whole day for people,goods and services to move within a country the size of califonia plus texas.

Nigerias don't deserve 20th century locomotives. Nigeria deserves a high speed rail network connecting essential cities.

Now, my all i have articulated above are open to debate. But they are my candid feelings on the "transformation agenda"...the jonathan administration is all over the place and that has made pointing at a specific area and say gee, they have really tried in this area. It's sad due to the high hopes nigeria had for the guy with fresh air.

Your observations is neither far fetched nor misplaced but to correct some of the notions you raised, the road map for the rehabilitation of rail transportation was not only to revamp the existing structures, but the modernization and stabilization of railway transportation in the country.

Demanding for light speed train without total rehabilitation of the current structure on ground will amount to a total waste, hence the current approach by rehabilitating all the idling locomotives and putting it into effective use.

Locomotive train heads or light rail is not what you pick or buy off from the shelf and according to the information on ground, the eastern corridor of Port Harcourt - Maiduguri train service will kick off by the end of 2013, with over 90 percent of the existing 3,505km narrow gauge in all parts of the country at various stages of completion.

Apart from that, the government is conducting feasibility study for seven standard gauge rail lines in the country;
Lagos-Shagamu-Ijebu-Ode-Ore-Benin City (300 Km) and Benin-Agbor-Ogwashi-Uku-Asaba-Onitsha-Nnewi-Owerri-Aba with additional line from Onitsha-Enugu-Abakaliki (500 km).

Others are the Benin-Sapele-Warri-Yenagoa-Port Harcourt-Aba-Uyo-Calabar-Akampa-Ikom-Obudu-Obudu Cattle Ranch (673km) and the Lagos-Ibadan-Oshogbo-Baro-Abuja high speed (615km).

There are also the Zaria-Funtua-Gusau-Kaura Namoda-Sokoto-Illela-Birnin Koni (520km) and the Eganyi (near Ajaokuta) - Obajana-Jakura-Baro-Abuja with additional line from Ajaokuta-Otukpo (533km).

From a recent comment from the minister of transportation, the ministry proposes to develop these new lines using the Public-Private Partnership strategy.

“Prospective investors will be invited to submit quotations for the projects, including Outline Business Case (OBC) reports by the time the feasibility studies are completed.”

Like I stipulated earlier, what matters is the modernization and stabilization of the current structures (which is what you requested), to bring a semblance of developments in all spheres of rail transportation in Nigeria.

And in a quest to hold government accountable, the current strategy by the government as laid out, should be monitored by all and sundry to provide yardsticks for assessment, and going by the current strides, the government is not faring badly IMO, considering the decrepit nature of rail transportation in Nigeria before now.

Sometimes, we need learn to crawl before we walk and it doesn't just happen overnight ...

Symphony007: the federal republic of nigeria should be able to review the capabilities of any partner they want to do buisness with. If they cannot find any suitable partner, the federal republic of nigeria that pays it's legislators over 30 million, where a minister spends 2 billion on travels, where a president spends 1 billion on food, can single handedly complete that kind of rail from port harcourt to lagos and then use the overwheaming revenue gotten from it to construct the lagos-kano phase.

Building modern railway is very expensive that needs large junk of money. I mean money.

A mistake in europe is a style in africa.Africans see their place as secondary in the world they inhabit,more like scavengers that all go for scraps.Never seeing themselves as being good enough to excel and set the pace.

kel4soft:
Building modern railway is very expensive that needs large junk of money. I mean money.

of course, money that we have that is wasted and stolen everyday.

The @OP as usual is been very, very, very Sillly....

It will be foolish for Nigeria to build a high speed train service now without a private company running it, since Nigeria railway corporation could not run 19th century locomotives for many years. The best we can go for is fast train service, like the one being built by GEJ from Abuja to Kaduna. It is not easy to maintain high speed train, even the US don't even have it and they should try and involve Dr Jude Igwemezie who is one of the best in rail technology in North America.

Why waste money on rehabilitating crap when you can build something decent from scratch. The locomotive thing is just a campaign tool for 2015. A useless project that has barely moved 50,000 people in six months

You should be happy that you have a president who see the need to revitalise the rail way, what was obasanjo doing even yaradua? I wish there started it by now we wound have move from dis level. Lets jst give this man a chance he have good vision for nigeria

Obiagelli: Why waste money on rehabilitating crap when you can build something decent from scratch. The locomotive thing is just a campaign tool for 2015. A useless project that has barely moved 50,000 people in six months

go to the kitchen dat is were u are need not talking nonsense u know notin abt

prem love: go to the kitchen dat is were u are need not talking nonsense u know notin abt

If you know any more why not point it or proof me wrong, go and ask those that tried.

vanunu: It will be foolish for Nigeria to build a high speed train service now without a private company running it, since Nigeria railway corporation could not run 19th century locomotives for many years. The best we can go for is fast train service, like the one being built by GEJ from Abuja to Kaduna. It is not easy to maintain high speed train, even the US don't even have it and they should try and involve Dr Jude Igwemezie who is one of the best in rail technology in North America.

after building the network, there is a possibility it could be sold to private individuals so it can be handled better. That is why i love margaret thatcher and british capitalism. Most of the greatest landmarks. Heathrow, land rover, jagua, rolls royce, the mines, BAE systems,etc..where all built by the government but later sold off to private folks who have managed and improved it futher.

prem love: You should be happy that you have a president who see the need to revitalise the rail way, what was obasanjo doing even yaradua? I wish there started it by now we wound have move from dis level. Lets jst give this man a chance he have good vision for nigeria

most of the rehabilitation contracts were actually awarded by the yar adua administration, but away from that, if pres. Jonathan really has a vision for nigeria, he should have a "definite vision" if he is focusing on power, then he should focus squarely on it and create a legacy, not today power, tomorrow, cell phones for farmers, next week, 29 billion naira for textbooks no nigerian child will see.

Symphony007: after building the network, there is a possibility it could be sold to private individuals so it can be handled better. That is why i love margaret thatcher and british capitalism. Most of the greatest landmarks. Heathrow, land rover, jagua, rolls royce, the mines, BAE systems,etc..where all built by the government but later sold off to private folks who have managed and improved it futher.

Tell them o, its only lack of vision and cluelessness that would make a government spend N24billion on that crap

A train in Japan capable of traveling at speeds over 310 mph!

[img]http://img1.nairaland.com/attachments/1219785_bang_JPG6c7228dcd283903afc2fe3684b2ea4f5[/img]

A train in Nigeria for the rail "revitalization" project of the jonathan administration

See the difference on the two pictures. Anyone who want to use this locomotive as part of a "Revitalization" project need to have his brain scanned urgently

koikoi2: The journey of a thousand miles begins wit one step. Countries using fast rail didnt start from there.They also started from d locomotive. It wil not b out of place if someone else introduces the speed train after Jonathan's govt, remember there was none wen he took office.

But must you traveled the same journey you traveled decades ago in 2013 with even worse and outdated equipments?

Horus:

A train in Japan capable of traveling at speeds over 310 mph!

[img]http://img1.nairaland.com/attachments/1219785_bang_JPG6c7228dcd283903afc2fe3684b2ea4f5[/img]

A train in Nigeria for the rail "revitalization" project of the jonathan administration

See the difference on the two pictures. Anyone who want to use this locomotive as part of a "Revitalization" project need to have his brain scanned urgently

Not sure why you're comparing Nigeria with Japan. Apart from the gulf in technological development, you do realise Japan's annual GDP is $5.87 TRILLION per annum as opposed to Nigeria's $280 billion, and therefore the former CAN easily afford a cutting-edge high speed rail network while Nigeria will necessarily struggle and sacrifice a lot more to get one?

Rossikk:

Not sure why you're comparing Nigeria with Japan. Apart from the gulf in technological development, you do realise Japan's annual GDP is $5.87 TRILLION per annum as opposed to Nigeria's $280 billion, and therefore the former CAN easily afford a cutting-edge high speed rail network while Nigeria will necessarily struggle and sacrifice a lot more to get one?

nigeria will not struggle to build a high speed rail network between lagos and port harcourt. The money is there. This country is the 6th largest oil producer on earth and has the 9th largest deposite of natural gas, not to talk of shale gas. Calculate all the money stolen in this country, calculate the over 30 million each member of the 360 member house of rep and 109 senators get from this country, calculate the billions spent on presidential food. Operating over 8 presidential jets. Etc...this country has the money and can afford it.

Rossikk:

Not sure why you're comparing Nigeria with Japan. Apart from the gulf in technological development, you do realise Japan's annual GDP is $5.87 TRILLION per annum as opposed to Nigeria's $280 billion, and therefore the former CAN easily afford a cutting-edge high speed rail network while Nigeria will necessarily struggle and sacrifice a lot more to get one?

There is many intelligent ingeniors in Nigeria, they can design a Nigerian train themselves. Now the train will not be as fast as the Japanese train but they can design a train that will make Nigerians proud of their own capacities. If they think outside the box I am sure that Nigerians can create something better than the yellow train in the picture. It is not only about GDP, the doubt factor have also to be eliminated. I posted this two pictures just to create a kind of "wake-up call"

Obiagelli: Why waste money on rehabilitating crap when you can build something decent from scratch. The locomotive thing is just a campaign tool for 2015. A useless project that has barely moved 50,000 people in six months

The Lagos Intra-City train alone convey about 30,000 people EVERY DAY, Ignoramus....

Symphony007: nigeria will not struggle to build a high speed rail network between lagos and port harcourt. The money is there. This country is the 6th largest oil producer on earth and has the 9th largest deposite of natural gas, not to talk of shale gas. Calculate all the money stolen in this country, calculate the over 30 million each member of the 360 member house of rep and 109 senators get from this country, calculate the billions spent on presidential food. Operating over 8 presidential jets. Etc...this country has the money and can afford it.

What effort has Apc made to stop their senators and reps from partaking in stealing from the nation's treasury, at least to prove that they're better.

Longeria: What effort has Apc made to stop their senators and reps from partaking in stealing from the nation's treasury, at least to prove that they're better.

sir. In my entire article and subsequent post, i never mentioned any party here. I'm just a nigerian concerned about the future of my country.

taharqa: The Lagos Intra-City train alone convey about 30,000 people EVERY DAY, Ode....

Why not go and get your facts about how many the lagos- kano route does. Btw na who you dey call ode