Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said that Lagosians will start commuting on speed trains by the fourth quarter of 2022.
Governor Sanwo-Olu made this known during an interview on Channels television on Friday.
“The trains will be on track by the fourth quarter; the terminal stations will be ready by the fourth quarter,” he stated during his appearance on the Channels Television breakfast programme.
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“Lagosians will be actively moving with trains by the fourth quarter of this year. If we don’t bring passengers on, it will be for security reasons.
“It will probably be things around communication that we are trying to test, things around operational training.”
Neptune Prime reported last week Wednesday that the state government completed the acquisition deal of the two new sets of 10 cars speed trains of the Talgo 330kmph trains for its Red Line rail project, as part of efforts to improve traffic management and transportation in the state.
The deal was sealed by the governor during his visit to the United States at the Milwaukee facilities of Spanish train manufacturer, Talgo Incorporated.
He had informed the audience at the event that the trains would be heading to Lagos for the 37km track rail project expected to have 11 stations and be the first operational metro system in West Africa when completed.
The governor also spoke about adopting a seamless transportation system in the state whereby residents will use just one card to pay for their rides either by road, water, or rail.
“We will probably be doing some test runs by the end of this (fourth) quarter and if we can’t start getting people on, you will see tickets being issued on our rail tracks,” said Governor Sanwo-Olu.
“So, we can continue to now start implementing the transportation master plan for Lagos where rails work, the BRTs will continue to increase in number, and the waterways infrastructure will be [operational].
“The beauty of it is that we are trying to have a common system where it will be with one card that you can hop in and hop off on all of these networks … and that is almost happening now with the cowry card being used on the buses.”
