The Nigerian Railway Corporation has said it will commence mass transit train services in five states in the first quarter of next year in order to ease public transportation problems in major cities.


The passenger trains currently running in Lagos, Kano, Kaduna and Jos, were introduced following the supply of 25 new locomotives to the corporation by General Electric to boost railway services in the country.


The Managing Director of the corporation, Mr. Adeseyi Sijuade, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone on Wednesday, gave the names of the five states that would benefit from the MTT as Enugu, Port Harcourt, Niger, Kwara and Borno.


He said the original plan was to first take the MTT to the six geo-political areas of the country and later extend it to other parts of the country covered by the railway network.


The train operation, he said, would improve as contractors currently handling the rehabilitation of the NRC track, as well as the communication and signal systems completed their assignment.


He also said that the rehabilitation of the Lagos-Kano line was almost completed, adding that only the bridgework required to address the flood challenges at Akeri area in Niger State was being attended to.


Sijuade also said that train services were gradually picking up in areas where rehabilitation work had been completed.


For instance, he said, ”The corporation has so far moved 1.5 million passengers this year and 135,000 tonnes of freight, almost from zero operation in 2009.”


The NRC boss also projected that about 13 million passengers should be travelling by train annually in Nigeria as from 2012 when the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt- Maiduguri line would have been completed.


He put the completion date of the line at the end of 2011.


He said the tender process for the rehabilitation of the line was near completion, adding that the ”contract will be awarded in January.”


Meanwhile, the Railway District Manager, West, Mr. Rasheed Gbadamosi, on Wednesday said that the commencement of cement haulage between Ewekoro and Ijoko, both in Ogun State, had boosted the operation of the western district of the NRC.


Lafarge WAPCO Cement Company Plc had last week moved 3,600 tonnes of cement by rail from its Ewekoro and Lakatabu plants and promised to convey the same product to places such as Offa, Osogbo, Kaduna, Zaria and Kano in the second phase of the project.


Gbadamosi said that the corporation had dedicated two new locomotive and 15 covered wagons to cement haulage.


He expressed optimism that an inter-city MTT would be introduced between Ilorin and Offa in Kwara State, next year.


Meanwhile, the Federal Road Safety Corps, on Wednesday urged the government to bring back rail system to reduce pressure on Nigerian roads.


The FRSC Zonal Commander, RS2, Mr. Danjuma Garba, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the freight that 10 trailers would carry could be lifted at once by a locomotive.


”If 10 trailers are off our roads daily, risks will be managed, the roads will be saved from wear and tear and we will have less vehicles to control,” Garba said.


http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201012301522428

Nigeria is moving forward under this regime.GEJ must be given another term.

supereagle:

Nigeria is moving forward under this regime.GEJ must be given another term.

True word!!

^^^   This is a project from the last administration.

The initial project  was started back during the Obasanjo regime when a contract was signed with chinese firms to upgrade and build for Nigeria a modern rail system to cost about 6 billion or more.   Project ran into problems when the Yar adua administration declared it was too expensive and needed to be reviewed. The penalty for cancelling was set at about 1 billion dollars.  Instead yar adua started on his own version of railway modernization(Part of his seven point agenda) which also ended up costing us up in the billions, but instead what we got were old model engines, no upgrades but repairs of our existing rail lines, sold to us as a rehabilitation and MODERNIZATION project. Essentially, what we got were 1970's model machines for billions in 2010, and rehabilitation of our rail to fit what we already had.

http://www.workersalternative.com/national-issues/26-yaraduasevenpointagenda

1 of the seven point agendas

TRANSPORT SECTOR – The transport sector in Nigeria, characterized by poor state and network of roads is an inefficient means of mass  transportation of people and goods. Transport reforms would involve road and rail development.  This would be kicked off with the rehabilitation and modernization of the Nigerian railway and the construction of new road network across the country as well as constant rehabilitation of existing ones.  The goal is to modernize the Nigerian transport system.

http://www.cenbank.org/Out/EduSeries/Fiscal%20reforms.pdf



http://www.tribune.com.ng/sat/index.php/politics-analysis/649-jonathans-cabinet-of-lobbyists.html

There were more saddening tales of how contracts approved by the past civilian government for improved infrastructure was cancelled by the Yar’Adua government on promptings from ministers in charge for re-scoping. The railway modernisation contract put in place by the past administration could easily be recalled. For instance, the past government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo awarded a contract of $8.3 billion for railway modernisation linking Lagos with Kano. Out of the sum, the government planned to pay the sum of $1.3 billion as mobilisation fee to a Chinese company that won the contract. Before the exit of the government, it reportedly paid $250 million to the contractor which, indeed, got the contract on the stream. The railway modernisation contract had been the first casualty of the policy reversal embarked upon by the Yar’Adua government, on the guise that it had no sufficient money to prosecute the contract.

In cancelling the contract, the government is now indebted to the contractor to the tune of $1.65 billion being damages for the cancellation. All the same, no concrete alternative has been put in place even for the contract re-scoping so promised. Regrettably, the government voted N200 billion for the  purchase of locomotive engines, while failing to approve contract for repair of the moribund rail lines across the federation. The locomotive engines so purchased had reportedly been left at the ports to rot away.

^ ^ And that was when i started to lose any respect i had for UMYA, that to me was a very stoopid and ill-advised decision. I don't want to sound like a pessimist but i don't think this project will succeed. Nigerians will not patronise Lord Luggard locomotives.

Same here, the day i learnt about the cancellation of the Project that is when i begings to hate UYMA, then i know that the man have no clue about development and Economy and the Mumuu Jonathan self na take project serious na 2011 d guy dey work on now

barnabasj:



Same here, the day i learnt about the cancellation of the Project that is when i begings to hate UYMA, then i know that the man have no clue about development and Economy and the Mumuu Jonathan self na take project serious na 2011 d guy dey work on now

The predecessors of GEJ were there nothing happened. OBJ spent 8 good years there no positive change. GEJ hasnt spent a year, we are seeing positive development.

supereagle:

The predecessors of GEJ were there nothing happened. OBJ spent 8 good years there no positive change. GEJ hasnt spent a year, we are seeing positive development.

Again this has little or nothing to do with Goodluck Jonathan. All the man needed to do, for this project to continue to the point that it has is sit as President. If you want to give kudos to anyone for this as is, then give it to those in charge of the project who have seen fit to continue it to the point they have, without pocketing the rest of the money and bailing afterwards.

supereagle:

Nigeria is moving forward under this regime.GEJ must be given another term.

Rubbish
This wasnt his project, it was the last administration's project
Say something better please

barnabasj:

Same here, the day i learnt about the cancellation of the Project that is when i begings to hate UYMA, then i know that the man have no clue about development and Economy and the Mumuu Jonathan self na take project serious na 2011 d guy dey work on now

True. Was so mad that the Yaradua sent our railway system back 30years. That project would have been completed by now, and if properly managed, you can imagine the income it would be generating by now and the ease it will put on our motor-roads. Am not impressed with this current arrangements at all.

what is/are the train(s) going to be powered with?

^^coal, I suppose.