Lagos to Ilorin 9am-7pm 10 hours trip

"Mr Ndakotsu, who said the service will start with a free ride for one week, said the train would depart the Iddo station in Lagos by 9 am. and arrive in Ilorin by 7 pm."

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5683979-146/railway_corporation_relaunches_lagos-ilorin_route_.csp



The Nigerian Railway Corporation will commence a Mass Transit Train Service between Lagos and Ilorin from Wednesday, March 23, as spokesperson of the agency, David Ndakotsu said in a statement in Lagos on Thursday.

Mr Ndakotsu, who said the service will start with a free ride for one week, said the train would depart the Iddo station in Lagos by 9 am. and arrive in Ilorin by 7 pm. It will subsequently embark on the return journey to Lagos the following day.

"To sensitise commuters on the return of the long distant rail services, the corporation has decided to carry passengers to and from Ilorin free from March 23 to March 30," he said.

Mr Ndakotsu said the train would stop for passengers to board or disembark at major stations, including, Agege, Ijoko, Abeokuta and Ibadan.

Other stations are Iwo, Ede, Oshogbo, Ikirun, Inisha and Offa before getting to the Ilorin terminal.

"To make the MTTS an outstanding success, the corporation has dedicated some of its newly acquired locomotive power and coaching facilities to the passenger train project," the railway official said.

"The management of the corporation is determined to deliver effective and efficient rail transport services, which will ultimately give value for money as well as convenience and comfort to passengers."

He stated the NRC had achieved some success since it began a comprehensive rehabilitation of its facilities a year ago, including the procurement of 25 new General Electric locomotives.

The President's promise

President Goodluck Jonathan had assured Nigerians that the country's moribund rail system will begin to function before the end of the month.

Addressing a rally in Osogbo on March 3, in continuation of his presidential campaign, Mr Jonathan said the rail line between Lagos and Jebba will be completed and open for operation by the end of March.

"I have just received a report from the Chairman of the Nigeria Railway Corporation that by the end of this month, segment of railway between Lagos and Jebba would be completed and people will begin to board train from Osogbo," he said.

Mr Jonathan; the Vice President, Namadi Sambo; and Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel subsequently undertook a 98-km train journey on March 12 from Ebute-Meta Junction to Abeokuta to show the tracks were ready for operations.

Their train ride followed the commissioning of the new 25 locomotive engines procured by the NRC.

The Minister of Transport, Yussuff Suleman embarked on a test-run ride on the train from Ebute-Meta to Abeokuta in Ogun State on March11.

Mr Ndakotsu stated that the MTTS project had been replicated in Kano, Kaduna-Challawa, Jos and Maiduguri while a concrete sleeper had been established at Bodija, Ibadan.

"The cement freight train service for Lafarge Cement Company, Ewekoro; rehabilitation of the Lagos-Jebba rail line; refurbishment of coaches and wagons, workshops re-equipping and staff trainings had also been carried out," he said.

Guess good luck haters has not seen this or they are not able to give any useful comment?.

I want to know that if he could have done this before why did he wait until the sw portion of his campaign to do it with all the transport issues in the country?

10 hours!!!!
haba, so this is what they've been shouting about all these while?
so Lagos to Kano 'll definitely take my whole day? Rubbish!!!

Knight1:

10 hours!!!!
haba, so this is what they've been shouting about all these while?
so Lagos to Kano 'll definitely take my whole day? Rubbish!!!

Only as you talk am, before I see am. God bless pregnant woman way enter that 'train'. She go born am even name her pikin before she reach destination.
If anybody get image of the train make then upload am abeg, besides OBJ my man did EXACTLY the same thing. Was it not at the eve of his departure that they launched the Lag train, make I hear abeg.
In Abuja over about 200million dollars has been poured into the INTRASTATE rail project and they say that its only at 20% level. Which kind Billion dollars tracks them they lay nko?

I remember OBJ also taking 'a train ride' from Lagos to Ogun. What happened to those refurbished locomotives?

How long does a bus/car ride from Lagos to Ilorin last?

This is the Best than Mr Gudluck and PDP can offer Nigeria for now, they cannot gives better than That

^^^ But Goodluck did NOTHING to make this happen. This Project dates back to the Obasanjo regime and was modified by Yar adua. It even continued while Yar adua was in a Coma, and today the old route, after months is back up again.  The purchase of the locomotives happened when yar adua was AWOL last year.

Why is it now Jonathan taking the GLORY for this?

For those who have their heads stuck up their arses thinking this is about some HATE of Jonathan, I suggest you get yourselves better EDUCATED instead of continuing to DECEIVE yourselves. Check THE FACTS . . they are out there for you to EDUCATE YOURSELVES.

The train project was a Yar'Adua initiative, the guys running the NRC should get their acts together, they should have express trains and those that stop at stations, I am sure that a train that goes straight to Ibadan should be able to make it in under 2 hours, there is really a lot to be done on the rail system in Nigeria, they should allow the state governments to have intra state while the federal can concentrate on inter state.

There was the Kwara Express idea from way back when . . . . I read somewhere someone suggested that the new trains were going to be used to replace the existing ones on some of the same old routes. Definitely not express-express . . . I mean the trains are still 1970's models, but I think people will probably ride better than they have on the old ones.

I am aware that a Microwave network is being built for the NRC (I consider the plan a waste of money), they need to make sure that peeps who work in Lagos can come from Ibadan and Abeokuta, that should be the first consideration, if they can do that, they will make so much money that they will be able to expand the network, the consumers are there, they just need to be smart.

I still think Yar adua made a huge mistake by cancelling/modifying the original project in the way he did --  We could have been celebrating world-class rail in some cities by now if he had not done what he did.

Good news BUT 10hrs, if it takes 5hr by road we should be aiming for 2-3 hours max by rail!

Pharoh:

Guess good luck haters has not seen this or they are not able to give any useful comment?.

Inane pillock!

hercules07:

I am aware that a Microwave network is being built for the NRC (I consider the plan a waste of money), they need to make sure that peeps who work in Lagos can come from Ibadan and Abeokuta, that should be the first consideration, if they can do that, they will make so much money that they will be able to expand the network, the consumers are there, they just need to be smart.

I think their main aim was/is freight first/mainly to reduce trucks on highways and move cargos inland

Kobojunkie:

I still think Yar adua made a huge mistake by cancelling/modifying the original project in the way he did --  We could have been celebrating world-class rail in some cities by now if he had not done what he did.

to an extent i agree but we dont actually know the plan as signed by obj, it wasnt detailed just a promised forr a train network  built at once instead of piecemal with a loan which repayment plan wasnt comprehensive, just look at parnacuss comment, we probably would have had the same issue, un-ending rail work

Dis Guy:

to an extent i agree but we dont actually know the plan as signed by obj, it wasnt detailed just a promised forr a train network  built at once instead of piecemeal with a loan which repayment plan wasnt comprehensive, just look at parnacuss comment, we probably would have had the same issue, un-ending rail work

The original was to cost us about $8 billion total and it was for a MODERNIZATION (complete overhaul of our rail system). I agree it was, not as detailed as one would expect in other places but that plan, IMO, was more solid than what Yar adua traded it for. Matter of fact, what even made me rejoice even more was that it was given to a company that already had a record in building modern rail systems( yes Chinese but was still worth it, in my opinion).
What Yar adua did was unacceptable. The Kaduna REHABILITATION[b] (NOTE: not modernization) [/b]cost us $500 million at least, and this simply for rehabilitation of existing tracks, purchase of the same old locomotives models (not 1990’s even) etc. I can go on to list more of the nonsense of what we have gotten so far, the cost and why I feel it is no better than what we could have gotten if we had stuck to the old plan.
Now, I am not in any way suggesting the new trains will be quicker but I have taken the train before, to the north and it was horribly slow, I don’t know if it is 10 hours to Ilorin as it has been decades since I took the ride to Ilorin by train.
Anyways, I hope FOI is signed soon so we learn a bit more of what actually happened and how much it ended up costing us.

Dis Guy:

Inane pillock!

to you right?