By Samson Echenim

The new lease of life being injected into the country’s railway transport system appears to beat everyone’s imagination, as the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) begins a new service targeted at bringing the Lagos middle class into the railway grid, SAMSON ECHENIM writes

Recent developments in Nigeria’s railway have gone far in showing that resuscitation of national infrastructure can be cheaply achieved. The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) is beating the imagination of most people, leaping from one feat to the next in a shorter time than expected and has continued to maintain appreciable doggedness in its determination to stabilise the railway transport system in the country.

The latest of the corporation’s comeback feat is its acquisition of two air-conditioned Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs), railway coaches that herald a complete deviation from the conventional coaches.

The corporation also acquired six air-conditioned coaches meant for the commencement of first-class train service on the Lagos-Kano route. The DMU combines speed with operational ease, making return trips faster than coaches pulled by locomotives by up to 100 per cent.

According to the NRC managing director, Engineer Adeseyi Sijuwade, the new railway vehicles meant to be deployed for mass transit train services, are expected to increase the number of passengers moved by railway in Lagos from the current 16,000 to 22,000 daily.

“These DMUs will free up a number of our heavy locomotives currently being used for passenger services, which can then be redeployed to pull freight wagons,” says Sijuwade.

Each set of the DMU is made up of three trailer cars and one motor car at each end. Powered by two sets of 1,200HP Cummins diesel engine and one 166HP Cummins generator for auxiliary power, the capacity of each trailer is 72 seating and 108 standing, making a total of 540 passengers for the three cars. “This configuration eliminates shunting at terminal stations, thereby reducing delays and journey time,” the NRC boss adds.

The NRC also plans to deploy the six air-conditioned coaches, each with 68 passengers as first-class coaches on long distance intercity train services, starting with the Lagos-Kano service.

“This is expected to immediately increase the number of passengers on the Lagos to Kano service from 6,000 to 7,000 per week. It is also expected to result in a drastic reduction in congestion on our trains,” says Sijuwade.
Railway for the Middle Class

While Nigeria’s growing middle class appears slow at accepting the coming back of the railway with certainty, the railway corporation has put on its thinking cap to strategise on how to bring them into the railway grid. Sijuwade maintains that the acquisition of the new trains is part of NRC’s plan to introduce “a new market” in the Nigerian railway system. He says the trains are meant to reach passenger segmentation goals, as part of his corporation’s strategies to provide train services for mostly middle class passengers.

“Now we have bankers, accountants and all sorts of professionals using the new trains. You see people come into the train with laptops and several professional gadgets,” Sijuwade says.

Mr Tola Adenubi, a journalist says the new trains have made his daily movement from Agbado to Apapa a lot easier and with remarkable save in time.

He says, “Even though I have always used the railway, since the service stabilised in the last few years, the coming of the DMUs brought about a lot of convenience. We now pay more, but we are happy because the service is worth the fare. In fact, more people that wouldn’t have ordinarily used the railway are now leaving their cars at home and joining the new trains to Lagos.”

The Lagos mass transit train service alone is said to generate up to 50 per cent of the corporation’s revenue from passenger services.

New figures coming out with the commencement of the DMUs show a huge improvement in turnaround time. Sijuwade says the NRC now nears commencement of hourly service.

According to him, unlike the coaches that one locomotive will pull from Iddo to Ijoko, which needs to be detached and fix at the other end to start coming back, the DMU moves straight and the other locomotive at the other end moves it back to the originating station.

He says, “So, if we actually have the line clearance, it is this sort of infrastructure that we can run hourly service. Hourly service can now be possible. In fact, the service we are providing now is meant to be a gradual transition into hourly service. You know, it is something that builds up over time. We are not going to dabble into it now so that we will not just be burning diesel. As more people come into the railways service grid, it becomes more possible to run hourly services.
“We will be having three of those air-coaches on Lagos to Kano route and they will become the first-class coaches.

Every other coach will be working as standard coaches, so it is a transitional growth whereby, after some while, we have the intention of making the first-class coaches to become the standard coaches, so all the coaches can even have air conditioners in the nearest future. What used to be the first-class coaches from Lagos to Kano can now be redeployed to other services, such as Offa to Kano, Minna-Kaduna-Minna which never had first class coaches. The Minna-Kaduna and back to Minna services runs three times a day and now we can use more first class air condition coaches on those services.”

A day after they were put to service, one of the newly acquired DMUs was attacked by hoodlums at the Ijoko, Agbado and Itoki stations, reportedly in protest against the higher fares on the new train service. The NRC boss, however, says a major reason for the mob attack was the realisation by the hoodlums that they can no longer do rooftop ridding, as there is provision for all passengers.

“We still have the old coaches, which is a lot cheaper than the DMUs. We expect that while we use the DMUs to bring in this new market, people will continue to use the existing coaches,” he notes.

Safety, Security at Railway Stations

With the steady growth now being recorded by the country’s railway, security and safety concerns have also sprung up. While the new DMUs leave no room for rooftop ridding, the menace may continue with the coaches. Recently however, the corporation engaged a private security firm, Todad Security Services, to man its stations and to also man the moving train. Todad now mans all stations adjudged to be notorious, prevent people from sitting on the train’s roof and ensure sanity in the use of train services.

Sijuwade says his management team is constantly meeting and deliberating on strategies to improve on safety and security of commuters at the station and while on transit. He says the corporation will soon commence fencing and gating of stations (terminals) identified to have security issues. Such stations according to him are the Ijoko, Oshodi, Itoki and Agbado along the Lagos service route.

He explains, “Most of our stations are porous. There is access to the stations, to the tracks and everywhere. But at Iddo we have actually erected a gate on the track. This means that no one can even walk to the station through the track. The gate only opens when a train is getting in or getting out of the station. One of the plans we have regarding limitation of access is to now, immediately commence same initiative starting with Ijoko. Ijoko is actually the station with the largest number of commuters after Iddo in Lagos area. So what we want to do now is to again entirely fence up the Ijoko Station whereby there will be only one point of access through the station building.

“The platform we constructed at the Ikeja Station is again another of our innovative initiatives and it’s a prototype, a pilot scheme of what we would do at many of the station, whereby you walk out and in of the train at the same level. Our intention is to construct the same thing at the Ijoko Station as well. The platform helps to reduce the trains dwelling time—that is the length of time the people use to disembark and embark.

“That also has a security implication. The train wastes no time at all when it stops to drop passengers and that helps to reduce the chance for people to climb on the train. So we will build the platform at Ijoko, Agbado, Oshodi and all the major stations which are also known to be notorious and we will then start fencing the stations.”

Maintenance and Retraining

Tails from a labour leader in the railway subsector, Mr Martins Kukuh, who has been with the corporation from the 1980s show fears of possible collapse if adequate provisions are not made for maintenance.

He says, “We are being trained, but after the training, we will need equipment to work with. We will need to replace bad parts with new ones to ensure that the trains do not stop moving. We expect that government has learnt from the mistakes of the past and from what we are seeing today, we are getting it right again.”

The NRC boss also shows concern in the area of maintenance, but his expression of the corporation’s action plan for stable maintenance comes with fair confidence. He says the corporation has a two-year maintenance deal with manufacturers of the new trains, CSR Nanjing Puzhen, China and Kintech Nigeria Limited.
He says, “In this country, we take delight in celebrating completion of a project. However, we do not put much emphasis on maintenance and what happens after. In the old NRC, sustainability plan was lacking. In so many locations all over the country, our rolling stocks litter. Two things are involved here—one, inadequate provisions for spare parts and two, inadequate provisions for maintenance.

This problem applies to other infrastructures such as the roads and all others.

“So we have learnt a lot of lessons from such failures and that’s why we have insisted on this plan to have the manufacturers stay with us here. We are providing accommodation for six of them, Chinese engineers and technicians here beside this railway compound. They sleep and wake up with us here every day and attend to any issues we might have. The DMUs are the first of their kind in Nigeria.

They are working right inside our workshop with our own technicians and engineers. What this means is that there is a day-to-day transfer of skills and technology. The other thing is that even though DMUs are new to us, we have done a properly structured training scheme, in which all our mechanical engineers and train operators have been brought and have undergone different training sessions.”

Private Sector Participation

Despite the speedy revival of the railway by the government, which is largely helped by the Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P), experts fear that without private sector involvement, the management of the NRC might become overwhelmed at some point.

“I think the NRC could be overwhelmed because we have realised that passenger level is growing fast. In terms of managing security, the influx of passengers, cash handling and a lot more, it is an observation though. It is one thing to say we are making progress, but that progress comes with a lot of challenges that need to be managed,” says Kuku.

However, Sijuwade says the NRC has been having “several strategic meetings on daily basis and continuously doing some kind of risk analysis and ways to manage them.”

He explains further, “For instance, the new trains come with a new challenge and like I earlier one of the ways we are making sure that we are not overwhelmed is outsourcing. We realise that the way things were going that security can no longer be left in the hands of NRC that is why we brought in Todad. Security is not our core competence. So what we do is that we have started outsourcing those roles that are not our core competence. Again, outsourcing comes as a transitional process towards concessioning to private sector. Now we have constraints as regards involvement of private sector, which has to do with the railway bill as you rightly mentioned, but we can’t just fold our hands.

“We are also in discussions with General Electric and other Chinese companies to set up their plants here. But we have so many workshops that are not put to use yet. In addition to serving as a maintenance workshop, companies can also put some of the facilities to use for the assemblage of rolling stocks. Our concern now is getting enough spare parts. For the GE deal, we got to a point where we actually finalised and came up with a memorandum of understanding for the company to set up here. However, the financial aspect of it is what we are still working on. Indeed it is a PPP initiative, but that doesn’t mean that we expect them to come in with 100 per cent of their own fund. The government wants to come in and put some money down and that’s what we are working on.”

One thing I will always assure Nigerians is that we have learnt from our past mistakes and they will never repeat themselves. We assure Nigerians of this government’s commitment to developing railway transport and we are particularly happy to have achieved this feat in the country’s railway system. Indeed, greater heights will be reached in no distant time.”

http://leadership.ng/business/376328/nrc-lures-lagos-elites-tracks-new-look-trains

slimfit1: No pictures he no happen na lie

christejames: GEJ helping Nigeria since 2012. I just hope we (nigerians) have improved on our maintenance culture. Anyway... GEJ till 2019!

ola6: Good one GEJ!

What about Fashola's "Internet" trains? Still not working. Note:Fashola started this project before GEJ and had the backing of the FG and world bank. Where is our money Fashola/Tinubu ole?

Ti Fashola nko?! Awon olote. Train ti a ti duro fun lati igba to ti joba Eko.. Ole APC!!!

Madawaki01:
Why can't u continue ur praise licking without formenting trouble?maka why?have u personally seen this trains moving?i once plied the lagos-kano route on this their so called first class shit,trust me,u will never enter it again if u manage to reach kano.

Now we have bankers, accountants and all sorts of
professionals using the new trains. You see people come
into the train with laptops and several professional
gadgets..

omenka: Oh Lawd have murcey!! Only in Nigeria would someone using a lappy on a train or anywhere else be seen as such a big deal!! Op even had to highlight it specially. Lmao!!

Daily we are inundated with pics of these toys which we know too well, unlike this story is tryna tell people, would be avoided like plagues by the very people who brought them in!! Rather they would ride in Rolls Royce and fly in their choppers and private jets where their safety is much more guaranteed!!

Said this the other time and I'm saying it again (if you don't like it, have yourself a cold acid bath! At least I'm sure that would kill Ebola virus faster then any salt solution): what would have happened had the internet and GSM revolution which happened during Obj's tenure without much noise started under Jonathan's?? Just a coupla rails and a Ben Ten like trains, and they won't let us rest for a split second.....

Bloody mediocres.
Mscheeew.

Signed: Me!!

Sincere9gerian:
Bad belleitis is a KILLER disease, just that it kills slowly unlike Ebola. Beware!

Meanwhile, can you share with us examples of any country, anywhere in world, that did not experience the so called GSM and internet revolution? What did your OBJ do to the NITEL inherited by his regime? OBJ killed perhaps the only platform that would given Nigerians an ALTERNATIVE terrestrial telecommunication system that exist in most countries.

omenka: Oh Lawd have murcey!! Only in Nigeria would someone using a lappy on a train or anywhere else be seen as such a big deal!! Op even had to highlight it specially. Lmao!!

Daily we are inundated with pics of these toys which we know too well, unlike this story is tryna tell people, would be avoided like plagues by the very people who brought them in!! Rather they would ride in Rolls Royce and fly in their choppers and private jets where their safety is much more guaranteed!!

Said this the other time and I'm saying it again (if you don't like it, have yourself a cold acid bath! At least I'm sure that would kill Ebola virus faster then any salt solution): what would have happened had the internet and GSM revolution which happened during Obj's tenure without much noise started under Jonathan's?? Just a coupla rails and a Ben Ten like trains, and they won't let us rest for a split second.....

Bloody mediocres.
Mscheeew.

Signed: Me!!