The Lagos State Government has set 2022 as its target for the operation of Marina-Mile 2 rail line.
Frederic Oladeinde, the state Commissioner for Transport, made this known while addressing journalist at a media round table during the weekend.
The roundtable was organised by the Cyno Group and themed ‘Impact of the 2021 LASG Budget Proposal on the Economy and Youth Empowerment’.
Oladeinde explained that the first 12km of the Blue Line rail project -which stretches from Marina to Mile 2- will become operational in 2022.
“From Mile 2 to Marina takes about two hours right now, by the time we implement that it will take 30 minutes,” said the Commissioner.
“The Red Line is also a very important project which this government has embarked on. It’s very important because that corridor caters for about a million trips and with the fact that the federal government is building that corridor to actually develop the Lagos-Ibadan rail line, the Lagos state government saw the advantage in collaborating with the federal government in sharing that corridor.
“And so we have signed the sharing agreement, all negotiations have been done, the Lagos state government will be adding some more stations. The federal government are developing three stations, that’s Ebute Metta, Iju, and Agbado.
“Lagos state will be incorporating Oyingbo, Ikeja, Yaba, and some other stations just to be sure we are able to move people from Agbado to Oyingbo in 30-35 minutes rather than the 2-4 hours that people are experiencing right now.
“And once that Red Line is completed, it will be able to cater for 450,000 passengers per day. That line will eventually end up in Marina, but the first stage is to develop Agbado-Oyingbo section.”
