Nigerians have reacted sharply with disapproval to the fare regime announced by the Federal Government on Friday for the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge rail line which begins operation on Monday.
Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi had announced that train ticket would cost N3000 for Economy Class, while Business Class goes for N5000 and First Class would be N6000.
The social media, especially Tweeter has been on fire since the announcement, with Nigerians blasting the Federal Government for what many called the “inordinately high fees”.
Arguing in defence of the fares, Amaechi had said the Federal Government is using the same template used on the Abuja to Kaduna route, which has been in operation since June 2017.
But Nigerians have called on the Federal Government to reconsider the price, saying the Abuja-Kaduna route is longer than the Lagos-Ibadan, and the route is used by politicians and captains of industries.
They argued that the Lagos to Ibadan is going to be used mostly by the masses most of who may not be able to afford the new fare. According to them, Lagos-Ibadan and vice versa by road at N1000 is way cheaper than the economy class fare which is put at N3000.
A tweeter user with the tweeter handle @Dekunle among others said the train is better offered more than just the normal rail service if the government envisaged any patronage.
Ikechukwu with the tweeter handle @iykimo asked a rhytoric question: isn’t rail transport the cheapest anymore? Lagos to Ibadan is N3k, N6k for executive suite.
Yet, another Tweeter user AkureCityHunter, with the handle @AkureCityHunter said “I will pay N3k from Lagos to Ibadanand I’d still be in economy? Well, that economy better have a PS5, free Netflix and sone mKFC delicacies.”
Yet, Real HusbandMaterial using @AdorableProduct did a comparison of the Lagos-Ibadan by road from Berger to Ibadan. According to him; by car it is N2,000 to N2,500 for a car of three passengers, while park and pick (popularly called soole) is N1,000. A 14 seater passenger bus is N1,500 while 18 sitter bus collects between N700 – N1000.
Another, critic, Naija using @Naija_PR said “How can rail transport cost N3000from Lagos to Ibadan, who are the people advising these ogas? Your closest competitor is road transport. Why cant they cut this price by half? Half the price and you are in business.” Proposing a masses friendly train price regime, Bhadoosky writing with the handle @BhadmusAkeem said much more friendly regime would be like N900 for economy, N1,800 for business class and N2,400 for business class. “Anything short of this, it is you and the political class that will be boarding the train.”
Chief Ola Agbebayo, a business executive based in Abeokuta said the new regime is a huge disappointment to a lot of Nigerians, and wondered why the government would have to take the price away from the masses who the train is meant to serve. He said; “All over the world, the train is the cheapest form of transportation and everyone who has travelled outside the country would attest to that fact, it is a means of last resort for many, whether resident or migrant. Same should be replicated here. The government has no reason to raise the fare above the reach of the average Nigerians, since it was constructed with borrowed funds which they are still going to repay.”
A Lagos State civil servant who would not want to be named said with the fare, the government has showed a preference in the kind of passengers they envisaged as not many would be able to afford such an exorbitant fare. “If you factor in the fact that Ibadan is merely a transit town from which many would still connect their various communities, then transportation cost element of their journey is better left imagined as it could only lead to avoidable spike.”
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation Engr Fidet Okhiria said the Corporation fare announced by the Minister would still be charged.