Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
In the past few weeks, Ologuneru, a usually sleepy community in Ibadan, Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State, has become a beehive of activities. It is not surprising though.
As of now, the community is the final terminus for the free rail service being offered passengers on the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail by the Federal Government.
And in this season, with many people travelling outside their stations to celebrate the Yuletide and New Year Day with family, friends and other loved ones, many are taking advantage of the free rail service offered by the Federal Government on the Lagos-Ibadan rail.
Each morning, passengers troop to the station to benefit from the service. And in the evenings, the area is filled up again, as passengers return from Lagos.
Many of the passengers have commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for the reforms in the rail sector, especially, the free train ride. They also lauded Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, for the tenacity with which he has been monitoring the new rail project.
Some of the passengers shared their stories with the reporter at the loading and offloading point at Ologuneru in Ibadan.
The reporter gathered that the free train ride on the new Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail started on December 2 and will end by the end of March next year. Commercial services are billed to commence in April.
The railway district manager (Western Zone), Mrs. Angelique Ikwuka, said the train usually departs Lagos for Ibadan by 4pm and arrives by 7 p.m. She explained further that the train would stay over in Ibadan and take off for Lagos by 9 a.m. It would return to Ibadan in the evening. The train, according to her, runs from Monday to Friday.
One of the passengers that boarded the train from Lagos to Ibadan recently, Mr. Ola Ebenezer, said he was impressed with what the Federal Government had done in the railway sector. He noted that with the train services, the current administration of President Buhari had shown its commitment to developing the transport sector.
His words: “I am impressed that the government is proving the point that it is not just about talk. Government is also acting and standing up to its responsibilities.
“The coaches in the train are very comfortable, and security guards are on board. My mind was at rest throughout the journey from Iju-Ishaga to Ologuneru. We had a smooth ride. There was no traffic congestion and there was no fear of being attacked by armed robbers or being kidnapped.
“I may have issues with some areas, but on this, the government has done well. I commend President Buhari and Mr Amaechi for this project. It is a good one. It will surely ease traffic on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.”
Another passenger, Mr. Tayo Adeyemo, said he was boarding the free train for the third time, along with his family. He said they had been on the ride from Lagos to Ibadan and on the one from Ibadan to Lagos.
Said he: “It has been a fantastic experience for me and my family. The seats in the coaches are very nice. In fact, they are executive ones. The operators of the train did not allow any act of lawlessness. If you are in the train, you must be seated comfortably. I think we are getting it right in this direction. But the government should ensure the completion of the project in good time.
“I observed, both in Lagos and in Ibadan, that some people that came early to the loading points did not have the opportunity to go with the train. The requirement to board the train is that you must have a valid identity card and your load must not be too heavy.
“With this, the Buhari administration has done what past administrations could not achieve for many years. But I still need to call on the Federal Government to increase the number of coaches from the current two and as well extend the standard rail gauge to other parts of the country.”
Another passenger, Mrs. Regina Ogunjobi, said the train ride was a great experience for her as an elderly woman. She said the free service had helped her overcome the trauma of spending hours in traffic on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“I am very happy with this free train service,” she said. “While in the train, I was not apprehensive about whether an accident would happen or not, and there was no stoppage on the way because there were no policemen, Vehicle Inspection Officers and men of Federal Road Safety Corps to stop vehicles and check particulars.
“Once the train takes off, we already know the time we would arrive our destination, unlike in the car or bus that we cannot really say when we are going to arrive anywhere because of the state of roads, coupled with logjam.”
A 10-year-old boy, Samuel Adekunle, who boarded the train with his father, told the reporter: “I told my father to drop his car so that we could board the train together. I wanted to have the experience and I thank God and my daddy that I now have the experience. It was a nice one. This was very organised.
“It is not like the one that I used to see in Lagos that was always overcrowded and many passengers would still sit on the roof of the coaches. I like this one. I will tell my friends and teachers about my experience when we go back to school in January.”
Mrs Ikwuka, told Daily Sun at Ologuneru that the available coaches could only accommodate 40 passengers for each trip. The NRC, she stated, was hoping to deploy more coaches as soon as they arrived.
“From the first day of the service, the turnout has been massive. As you can see today, some passengers were turned down because we have limited spaces for them. I feel sorry for some of them because they came from a long distance to get here. I was told that people come here as early as 5:30 a.m. to be able to get a ticket to enjoy the service.
“In the coming few weeks, we hope to deploy more coaches as soon as they arrive. The journey from Lagos to Ibadan is between two hours, 45 minutes and three hours at present.
“The design speed of the train is between 120 and 140 kilometres per hour when the rail project is fully complete. So, we are talking of one hour and 30 minutes to travel from Lagos to Ibadan,” she said.
Asked whether there were challenges being experienced by the operator of the train, Ikwuka stated: “The whole essence of trying services is to notice where there are challenges and fix them before we go fully commercial.
“We take off in Lagos by 4 p.m. from Iju and 9 a.m. from Ologuneru. The train from Lagos will drop off passengers at Ologuneru and the train driver will go to Omi-Adio to park and clean up and do some other things. The train will get to Ologuneru between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning and depart Ibadan for Lagos by 9 a.m.
“The capacity that we have for the coaches is just 40 passengers. So, the first 40 persons to come will go. So, other people, unfortunately, have to go back to their homes.”
On the security arrangements for the train and the passengers, she stated that military men, police and other paramilitary organisations have been providing full security for the train, the passengers and their property.
Said she: “In the next three to six months, we are going to be fully commercial. Our coaches will be here with a capacity of 84 per coach. When we go commercial, the amount that passengers will pay will be worked out.
“So, by April that we want to go commercial, it is expected that the track would have been fully completed and handed over to NRC.”