VIKTO83:
Lagos state govt has gone beyond thinking like a state.
They now think like a country.
Tinubu really set a working plan in place and it's working out.

I'm Nwafo igbo but when I see truth I say it.

tolue42:


So you believe what you read on Twitter? Ambode even distanced himself from any Lagos Rail during his tenure.....so why are you people being mischief like this ?

ceaser:
But why does our governors have to demean themselves to the point of doing these things when the commissioner for Works is in the state?

A whole Nigerian governor going to the US to meet with a Councillor equivalent of Nigeria in the US is demeaning, in my opinion.

For instance, check out how the below was reported



As if Nigeria isn't an entity worthy of mention. A more respectful reporting and a use of formal context would have been the use of "the country's"

AmazingELixir:


A train built in 2012.....that's about 10years, one Hopes the critical electro_mechanical components haven't deteriorated.


The niggar that hatched this deal will be smiling to the bank big time for mega payday

mapet:


Pls sit this one out, stay in your village and stop talking about Lagos you've never been to....

naptu2:


I wish you knew what the claim was about, then you'd see how hilarious it is. How can something that was built in Toronto be the same as something that was built in China and also be the same as something that was built in Wisconsin? There is a rush to throw negative comments without actually understanding what they are talking about.


In 2011 Governor Fashola went to Toronto to explore the possibility of using their H5 rail cars on the Blue Line. The rail cars were scheduled to be scrapped, but Lagos opted to buy them instead. However, the Blue Line project ran into funding problems as a result of the inability to access the loan from the African Development Bank (because the Federal Government did not provide a guarantee for the loan), so that contract was cancelled. Those rail cars were eventually scrapped in 2015.

In 2015, the Lagos State Government was exploring the possibility of getting rolling stock from CNR Dalian in China for the Blue Line (that's what they mean when they refer to Ambode).

Now the Sanwo-Olu Administration has bought trains from Wisconsin for the Red Line.

How can the H5 trains from Toronto, the trains from CNR Dalian in China and the Talgo trains from Wisconsin be the same??

mapet:


Bros,

Me I said Amen to the prayer. Let his own life be handled the way his Eastern Governors have handled their states

tollyboy5:

Lol so this is for the reclinerail. Has the rail been completed?
What about the blue line rail?
Theblueline should come first nau!

naptu2:
Aha! Just as I was going to post last year. The Red Line will share tracks with the Federal Government's standard gauge line for a large part of its route. As I thought, the Lagos State Government will simply construct the extension to the Lagoon Bridge. This means that the project can be completed before the specified duration of two years.

The other thing that I was wondering about was the connection to the airport. It seems that there's no longer going to be a spur to the airport but rather a sky walk will be built to connect the rail line and the airport.

This Red Line is even more important than the Blue Line. Governor Sanwoolu said (at the tribute that was held for Governor Jakande) that both lines will be completed in the next two years.


What I was going to post last year was that it'll be very easy for Governor Sanwoolu to get both lines operational. Simply piggy back the Red Line on the Federal Government line and then begin a Blue Line service from Marina to Mile 2. The line from Marina to Mile 2 is almost complete despite the Federal Government interference in 2013 that caused delays.

Some people think that Ambode delayed the construction of that line and basically abandoned it. That's not true. The line stopped at Ijora when Fashola left Office. It was during Ambode's tenure that work began at Marina. The real cause of delays is that the Federal Government blocked the loans in 2013. That created a huge financial crisis and so the work had to progress very slowly because there wasn't enough money to fund the contractors. I'll explain that better when I finish the 3rd Mainland Bridge post (something similar happened to the 3rd Mainland Bridge and that's why something that should have been finished by 1985 was actually finished in 1990).

This is the Red Line route map.

Ekpekus:

I have just one question...
Is it an electric or locomotive train?

If it is the later, then forget aboouuurrrrit.

Tennessee85:
Your tears and pains are noted, meth cannibal.

SocialJustice:
Was I talking to you or are you insane? This is how you enable bad governance in Nigeria with your stupidity.

Truly, I live in a small town but since 1992 I have visited and lived in various parts of Lagos. From Itire, Denedo, Olatilewa, Bode Thomas, old Ojo, Ogo Oluwa, association, Shangisha, college Road, Ikotun, Fagba, Ogba, Berger, Akpongbon, Fadeyi, Outer marina, Obalende.

I am sure I know Lagos far better than you. So shut up.

mapet:


I say sit this one out you village rat....

naptu2:
Oh yes! This will be much faster, easier and simpler.

I started writing this thread sometime between 2012 and 2015 because of arguments that I had with a friend on Nairaland.

The Nigerian rail system was collapsing throughout the 1980s. Despite the fact that President Babangida launched the integrated mass transit system c1987 (they had trains running the Lagos-Ibadan route) and that NRC engineers had built a locomotive on the chassis of a Peugeot J5 bus, the railways eventually went comatose in the 1990s.

President Obasanjo made lots of plans to revive the railway system, but they could not be put into practice before he left. President Jonathan came and practicalised those plans and that's when I had the arguments with my friend.


You see, a lot of people see fancy things in movies and TV series and they immediately want them, but they do not consider what these things are used for. So, any time a thread was created about the railway improvement programme, my friend would complain that they are not high speed trains. So, beyond what I wrote in the quote below, I'm now going to address some of the other issues that people complained about back then.


1) Locomotive: People often immediately complained when they saw the word "locomotive". You would think that it means "inferior trains". Of course that's not what it means. It simply means the part of the train that has the engine and pulls the rest of the train. I suspect that the people who believe that it is a negative word assume that it is only reserved for steam or diesel trains, but there are (of course) electric locomotives. That's because it simply means the part of the train that is pulling the carriages or wagons.


2) What made our trains slow? As is always the case when Nigeria buys things, some people claimed that the trains that were bought were 18th century trains and that's why they were very slow. That is of course not true.

I monitored the situation at the time and the government struck a deal with General Electric for its subsidiary in Brazil to produce the trains that were used at the time (that reminds me of the deal the Federal Government had with Mercedes Benz Brazil to produce the Festac buses). It's true that the trains ran very slowly when they were in Nigeria, but that was not because of the locomotives. Some of those locomotives that were bought from GE could run at 180 to 200 KMPH, but they went much slower in Nigeria because of the rail lines. They were running on narrow gauge lines and the train drivers had to go very slowly to prevent the trains from derailing at bends and so on. I remember when a reporter took a ride on the train. It was running normally until it started to rain and then it suddenly started going at snail speed.

It's just like what's going on right now. The new trains on the standard gauge lines can go even faster than they are going at the moment, but the minister said that the drivers have to reduce their speed to prevent the trains from hitting cows (as it happened on the Kaduna-Abuja line) and people (especially people who trade and do other business on and around the Lagos-Ibadan rail line).

So the problem wasn't the trains.


3) Electricity: They complained back then that the trains were diesel locomotives (they were actually diesel-electric, that is, they can be powered by both diesel and electric engines). The fact of the matter is that we have not yet even solved the problem of providing electricity to power our homes, how then do you want us to provide electricity for the rail lines? Furthermore, we have also not solved the problem of encroachment on our rail lines, imagine what would happen if they were electrified!


4 High speed rail: The issue of high speed rail is addressed in the quote below.

naptu2:
Here's a summary of a thread that I started writing 4 or 5 years ago. I knew exactly what I wanted to write and wrote an outline for it, I gathered lots of links and pictures to buttress my point and I tasked my memory for things from the 1970s and '80s to add to the thread, but I never actually created the thread. Well here's a very short summary.

There are many types of train services, but Nigerians seem fixated on just one type of service - high speed rail. If you listen to some Nigerians, you would think that all rail services should be high speed rail services, but of course that's not the case.


High speed rail services, by definition, have trains that run at speeds of 200kmph or more.



Types of rail services

1) Metro

These are train services within cities that provide mass transit services. They usually carry a large number of people on their daily commute and they usually have a lot of stations within the city.


2) Freight trains

These are trains that carry heavy goods. Freight trains are usually slower than passenger trains because of the weight of the goods that they carry.

3) Regional or national passenger services

These are passenger train services that carry people between cities or right across countries.


4) High speed rail services

These are rail services that have trains that run at 200kmph or faster (for existing tracks) or 250kmph or faster (for new tracks).

High speed rail services are limited by physics and economics. There must be enough distance between stations for the trains to gain enough speed and the tracks must have a large turning radius (because of the speed at which the trains are travelling). This is why high speed trains are not used for regular metro services (because metro services usually have a lot of stations within short distances from each other).

High speed train services also usually have fewer stations and are more expensive, so there must be enough passengers to be able to cover the cost of running the trains.

Most high speed rail services run from airports to city centres. Airports are usually built some distance away from cities because of the problem of noise pollution and also because airports need to be some distance away from tall objects like sky scrapers. However, many travellers would like to get from the airport to the city centre in the shortest possible time. High speed rail services are therefore used to ferry people from the airport directly to the city centre.

High speed rail services are also used to take passengers between a country's two major cities. Some countries have a political capital and another city that is their economic capital. high speed rail services are used to ferry people directly between these two cities (e.g. the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed railway).

High speed trains are usually not used as freight trains. There are no high speed trains that are designed to carry freight. The only high speed freight trains are in France and these are trains that were originally designed to carry passengers, but they have been converted to carry freight.

---

So, for example, it doesn't make any sense to have high speed rail services on a metro system in Lagos (e.g. the Lagos Blue Line). However, I have identified two routes in Nigeria in which a high speed rail service would work.

1) From Ikeja to Lagos Island: The international airport is in Ikeja and Ikeja is one of the 4 major business districts in Lagos, yet it is relatively far away from the other 3 business districts. Sometimes people can spend up to 4 hours in traffic while trying to go from Ikeja to one of the other 3 business districts. Therefore, a high speed line from the airport, Ikeja Business District or Ikeja Bus Stop to either Marina, Victoria Island, Ikoyi or Lekki would make sense.


2) From Lagos to Abuja: Lagos is Nigeria's economic capital, while Abuja is Nigeria's political capital. Lots of people fly between Lagos to Abuja everyday. However, weather conditions (harmattan, rain storms, etc.) could lead to significant number of flight cancellations. A high speed rail line between Lagos and Abuja could work, especially if its fares are cheaper than airline fares.

However, these are the only two routes I can think of in Nigeria where high speed rail lines would make sense all year round.

naptu2:
A train is a line of interconnected vehicles. In this particular post I am referring to railway trains, that is, trains that run on a dedicated rail track.

Almost all trains are made up of locomotives and railcars. The word locomotion basically means movement and a locomotive is a vehicle that pulls or pushes the rest of the train. Some people refer to locomotives as "train engines".

There are various types of locomotives, such as steam locomotives, diesel locomotives and electric locomotives.

A railcar could be a wagon of a coach. Wagons are used to carry goods, while coaches are used to carry people.


A wagon could be made in the shape of a tank (to carry liquid goods), it could be a covered goods wagon (to carry things like yams, cows, etc) or it could be a flat bed wagon (to carry things like steel rods, etc).


So how can someone ask if a train is an electric train or a locomotive? Does that make sense??


Picture 1) An electric locomotive

Picture 2) A diesel locomotive

Picture 3) A steam locomotive

Picture 4) A coach

Picture 5) A covered goods wagon

Picture 6) A tank wagon

Picture 7) A flatbed wagon

Picture 8 ) A flatbed wagon carrying poles.

dele1727:
Yet ask Nigerians.... Yaradua is a good man... the best president in modern Nigeria

tegrianonigltd:


Enjoy your Lagos and Nigeria. Suffering and Smiling, defending rubbish for amount we can pay you.

naptu2:


I wish you knew what the claim was about, then you'd see how hilarious it is. How can something that was built in Toronto be the same as something that was built in China and also be the same as something that was built in Wisconsin? There is a rush to throw negative comments without actually understanding what they are talking about.


In 2011 Governor Fashola went to Toronto to explore the possibility of using their H5 rail cars on the Blue Line. The rail cars were scheduled to be scrapped, but Lagos opted to buy them instead. However, the Blue Line project ran into funding problems as a result of the inability to access the loan from the African Development Bank (because the Federal Government did not provide a guarantee for the loan), so that contract was cancelled. Those rail cars were eventually scrapped in 2015.

In 2015, the Lagos State Government was exploring the possibility of getting rolling stock from CNR Dalian in China for the Blue Line (that's what they mean when they refer to Ambode).

Now the Sanwo-Olu Administration has bought trains from Wisconsin for the Red Line.

How can the H5 trains from Toronto, the trains from CNR Dalian in China and the Talgo trains from Wisconsin be the same??

obynzo:


Was the track specification considered in the purchase of this train or is it another propaganda. Mark my words by next year we will see the trains they purchased

anonimi:


I am asking you- what did Yar'Adua achieve to be the best president?
I hope that you are a Nigerian and not a Sudanese and so can answer in details.

tollyboy5:
so a train build in 2012 unused don spoil?

Tennessee85:
I love it like that. You can now face you homeland of meth cannibals.

naptu2:


No, of course the track specification was not considered, rather they got a babalawo to tell them if the train was suitable.

obynzo:


That your attempt at overt sarcasm doesn't make you smart at all.

Superwave16320:
I have a question for you as well.

Are you igbo and cursed ?
I asked because I know for a fact only those from your tribe do not wish Lagos well yet you clowns can't stop trooping into the same Lagos like your miserable wretched lives depend on it.

Sleekfingers:
For where you see the light? We need to start generating our own electricity in lagos. That useless national grid no dey help matter at all...

seguno2:


You mean that is not happening already, some two decades after Tinubu’s Enron barges and Fashola’s supersized diesel generators