The long-awaited line, the commissioning of which was delayed by the pandemic, connects the economic capital to Ibadan, a large city in the southwest of the country, and should have enormous economic benefits.
The Lagos-Ibadan Railway connects the megalopolis with 20 million inhabitants to Nigeria’s third largest city, with more than 3.5 million inhabitants for the capital of the state of Oyo in the southwest. It is a 156 km long stretch, a distance that is now covered in 2 hours by train, instead of 5 hours by car, on a dangerous highway, rutted and ultra-loaded by heavy freight transport.
For its debut, the train will serve the two cities only once a day and from Monday to Friday. It will increase to 16 daily laps from next month. The official inauguration of the line should also take place during this month in January.
The $ 1.6 billion infrastructure should have been delivered between the end of last year and the beginning of this year, but the Chinese group that carried out the project had to reduce the number of workers – mostly Chinese – from 10,000 to 3,000 in the past months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
To get on the train, you have to pay between 6 and 16 dollars, that is, between 3200 and 8600 CFA francs. A high cost for the majority of Nigerians. As this line will partially block Lagos’ main exit road to the rest of the country, it should also cause property prices to rise along the way.
.
