If you live and work in Lagos, then you are used to the traffic situation. However, Apapa has a special kind of traffic. I work in Apapa, and what we experience in Apapa is called a gridlock. It is not the normal lagos moving traffic, it is a complete lock down of the road and all intersections. Imagine being on one spot for hours, surrounded by oil tankers, trailers and their containers that can fall at any moment. This is the kind of traffic that we have been experiencing in Apapa for the past 2 weeks.

On a good day, from my house to work is approximately 15-20 mins but any time there is a lock down, I spend 3/4 hours on Ijora bridge just to get to work. Sometimes, I park my car at a public car park and trek to work, but the distance is so long that I am usually so tired and sweaty by the time I get to work. Some of my colleagues take a bike to get to work, but I am so scared of riding a bike on the bridge and it is quite expensive. In this period of fuel scarcity, they charge as high as N1,000 just to get you across Ijora Apapa bridge.

As an AKAglue, I am always looking for good deals/alternatives, and in my quest for a cheap, safe alternate way to commute to work, I discovered that there is a Jetty at CMS, Lagos and various private companies run ferry transportation services. The ferries ply various routes as CMS-Apapa, CMS-Victoria Island, CMS-Ikorodu. etc. I was a bit skeptical the first day, but on getting there I was impressed at how organized they were.

There are two main Ferry company that plies the CMS-Apapa route, Texas Connection Ferry Service and Sea Coach Ferry Service. They both charge N150 only for a trip and both provide you with a life jacket which you must put on before entering the ferry.

The Texas Connection has 2 big ferry coaches with a capacity of 80 passengers, their ferries are neat and the seats well padded. The journey was slow but steady and took about 7 minutes .

The Sea coach has various new ferries, they are more like speed boats, smaller in capacity and much faster. The journey was fast, bumpy and took about 4 minutes.

I enjoyed both rides, but I will be sticking to the slow steady Texas Connection Coach Ferry.

Are you tired of driving/ sitting in traffic? You may want to try water transportation. Please note that there are so many locals that offer water transportation, however their ferries are more like canoes and not upto standard. Kindly stay clear of those.

http://akaglue.com

Great post! Lagos is surrounded by a vast network of water. i.e. rivers, lagoons and even, the ocean.

Yet, the state govt and its citizens have not utilised these assets effectively to improve transportation and reduce the gridlock on our highways.

There are small speed boats that ply the Badore to Ikorodu axis every day. Badore is located after Ajah, in the Lekki peninsula area.

From the Ebute Ero jetty on Lagos Island, there are ferries that ply the Ikorodu-Ebute Ero-CMS route.

There is also the Tarzan jetty (a privately-owned jetty) in the Maroko area of Victoria Island close to Oriental Hotel. There are speed boats that carry passengers from Queens Drive in Ikoyi to Maroko in Victoria Island, every two hours.

Unfortunately, water transport is not well publicised and the ferry schedules are unknown by most people.

There used to be large ferries plying the Mile 2 - CMS route in the past, but those ferries have packed up now. They were all owned by govt.

This is an area that could be a major income generator for both state governments and private individuals, if proper attention is paid to it and good money is pumped in, to upgrade the jetties and ferries.

The Apapa jetty behind Flour Mills is still an eyesore and needs to be upgraded very quickly, to prevent any accidents.

I wish there was a ferry service linking Lekki/Lagos Island to Otta in Ogun State. It would reduce the traffic on the old Lagos-Abeokuta by a great deal, if scheduled services were made available by boat.

Here is a bit of information on water transportation in Lagos State.

Transportation in Lagos (Part Ferry Services.

Posted on February 18, 2013
The history of ferry service in Lagos State can be traced to the 1970s when Lagos was still the federal capital. Then the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) operated ferry services to Apapa, CMS, Ebute-Ero and other locations. Later, the state government under the Lateef Jakande administration also came up with its ferry service when it purchased its ferry boats “Baba Kekere” and “Ita Faji”. The Ferry Services Corporation was established to run the service. The effective and efficient service run by the corporation has still continued to be a reference point in the state well over 25 years after.

The State Ferry Service Corporation is no more in operation as the National Inland Waterways Authority Act (Repeal) Law 2008 created the Lagos State Waterways Authority, which is already functional with a supervisory board inaugurated by Governor Fashola to monitor the private operators and ensure they operate within the provisions of the Inland Waterways Law.

In order to sustain this development as well as attract Lagosians to water transportation, the state government has been constructing jetties at Ikorodu, Osborne and Badore, in addition to dredging ferry routes. These include Ikorodu-Badore via Oreta, Baiyeku-Ijede, Ikorodu-Osborne, Badore-Lekki, Oke Afa-Mile 2 and Tolu/Ajegunle-Port Novo Creeks-Liverpool. Also, repairs are being carried out on Epeme and Iya Afin jetties. When all the designated corridors for the ferry service become fully operational, this will certainly reduce reliance on roads as sole means of transportation.

Today, from one operation route in 2007, Lagos is running water transport on 12 routes under the supervision of Lagos State Waterways Authority, while passenger traffic has grown to over one million passengers per month. The routes are Ikorodu-Marina/CMS; Marina-Mile 2; Ikorodu-Addax/Falomo; Ikorodu-Ebute Ero; Marina-Ijegun Egba-Ebute-Ojo; Mile 2-Marina/CMS-Mekwen-Falomo; Badore-Ijede; Badore-Five Cowries; Marina-Oworonshoki; Ebute Ojo-Ijegun Egba; Oworonshoki-Five Cowries; and Baiyeku-Langbasa. This has also created additional new jobs with multiplier effects on families and the society. https://naijachronicles./2013/02/18/transportation-in-lagos-part-8-ferry-services/