By Ayo Akinfe
On this day in 1837, Euston railway station opened in London as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway. It was London’s first intercity railway station, Nigeria needs to learn from this and come up with a coherent railway policy.
Just this week, Governor Babajide Sanwoolu had accepted that he needs to reduce the number of cars on the roads of Lagos. The only way to do this is to move people on to rail
If Rotimi Amaechi returns as transport minister, he needs a railway policy that looks like this:
[1] A rail network will be constructed across the country over the next 20 years linking all 36 states, employing no less than 10m people. This will also involve the manufacturing of carriages, tracks, signal boxes, equipment, etc
[2] Lagos to Abuja will be linked by a Maglev bullet train running at a speed of about 500km per hour, enabling the journey to be made in under two hours. With time, this service will be extended to other major routes like Lagos-Kano, Lagos-Port Harcourt, Kano-Port Harcourt, Abuja-Calabar, etc
[3] High speed trains running at no less than 300km will connect all 36 state capitals to a national network
[4] Standard gauge regular rail services running at speeds of between 60km and 100km per hour will link state capitals with other towns and cities in the states
[5] The federal government will hold a 20% stake in the national railway service, inviting private sector partners to enter into joint ventures
[6] Currently, 90% of journeys in Nigeria are carried out by road. By 2035, this must be reduced to 40% by moving passengers on to trains
[7] All major industrial concerns being launched, like refineries, ports, mega churches, stadia, shopping malls, etc, will be compelled to add a railway link to their site
[8] Any urban centre with a population in excess of 2m people will be compelled by law to establish a light railway network at the very least
[9] A national travel card scheme will be launched, which enables users to travel on state and federal coaches, buses, trains and marine transport. Also, all freight operators who move their goods on to rail and waterways will get a 20% discount over the next 10 years
[10] Nigeria’s railway network is currently made up of 3,505 km of track. By 2035, we intend to increase this by 10-fold to 30,000km. We will also aim to phase out narrow gauge tracks by the is time
