By Demi Adeniyi
Barely one month after it commenced commercial operation, the Lagos State Government may have suspended operations on its Red Line Mass Transit Train Service (LRMT). The troubling thting is that the suspension might be indefinite.
Checks by our Correspondent indicated that the operations of the train service ran into troubled waters started to show early are passengers boycotted the train service on the strength of its exhorbitant fare prices, which made it more expensive than the road mode alternative.
However, since last week, many passengers had observed that the train itself had developed mechanical faults that would affect its operations. Some passengers who spoke with our Correspondent claimed the failure was first noticed on the morning belt of the train service on Monday.
A passenger who preferred anonymity, who boarded the train from Iju said they had been told the train had developed a mechanical fault and when they got to Mushin, all passengers had been told to disembark as the train could no longer move.
Another passenger Emmanuel Ajadi, said he was turned back at the Agege Train Station on Tuesday by station workers who said the train is not in operation.
By Wednesday, the operators of the Red Line had in a terse chat posted on the LRMT has indicated that the break in operation might be indefinite.
On the Whatsapp Channel which was created on Tuesday, the operators had earlier that Tuesday stated: “Please note that only the 5.20pm and 6.50pm train from Oyingbo and 6.40pm train from Agbado will run today.” Checks revealed that both services pledged for that evening never did.
By 9.19pm same Tuesday, the operator confirmed it wasn’t able to operate as promised when it sent the chat: “We sincerely apologise for the cancellation of service this evening which was due to mechanical faults. Kindly note that the train will not be operating tomorrow, and until further notice. We deeply regret this situation.”
The Red Line had commenced commercial operation on the Red Line on October 15, 2024, eight months after it was commissioned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on February 29, 2024.
The service had taen off with two services at the morning and two at evening peaks culminating in four shuttles per day, which it intends to upscale as operations improves on the corridor, which is projected to be a major cash cow with the huge population of passengers transiting from Agbado to Oyingbo.
Checks have indicated that the train service had until the suspension of operation due to mechanical failure been running at below optimal carriage capacity as many have complained about the high cost of trips, put end-to-end at N1500 per trip (from Oyingbo-Agbado or from Agbado-Oyingbo), while the narrow gauge train operated by the Nigerian Railway Corporation on the same corridor for the same trip costs N750.
The Red Line which started commercial operation on its 27km first phase was operated by First Metro, under the guide of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA). The service is projected to carrying about 500,000 passenger daily and about 1.5 million daily at the completion of the second phase which would see the service terminate at Onikan, from where it would join the State’s premier mass transit, the Lagos Blue Line.
Attempts to get reactions from LAMATA by our correspondent have been unsuccessful as calls or WhatsApp chats to their phone numbers were not responded to.