Why Lagos Must Maintain And Keep The Blue Line Rail Clean For Sustainability -By Abiodun Salako

On Monday September 4, Lagos was all agog to witness the first historic trip on the Blue Line Rail from Marina to Mile 2 by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu alongside government functionaries, Chieftains of the ruling party and the media. This came 40 years after the metro line vision was conceived by the first civilian governor of the state, Late Lateef Jakande in 1983.

The project manifested two decades after a former governor, now Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, inaugurated it in 2003. The first section of this recently inaugurated rail project links the Lagos Marina to the Mile 2 district over a distance of 27 kilometres, in just 15 minutes. The journey is half that of a bus, and the 175,000 daily passengers will have to pay N750 once the 50 per cent reduction introduced by Sanwo-Olu is removed.

While the project took too long to materialise, Lagosians were quite full of excitement as social media came alive with videos of those who boarded the train. In those videos, one could see many passengers bringing out their phones and taking pictures of themselves on the train. Those pictures made the rounds on social media too. It seemed new and fabulous despite some African countries possessing better trains and rail network systems. For example, In 2018, Morocco inaugurated Africa’s first bullet train, Al-Boraq. Al-Boraq has been ranked the sixth fastest train in the world by CNN Travel.

Sanwo-Olu has promised that the next phase, the 37-km Red Line, which is 95 per cent completed, would be opened before the end of 2023 and is expected to move some 500,000 passengers daily. The Lagos metro inauguration, the first line of which was completely financed by the Nigerian state to the tune of $1.2 billion, was launched three months after the introduction of two new electric buses in the city. The buses can travel for up to 280 kilometres before requiring a charge and on a full charge, passengers can travel from Oshodi to Obalende – 26.4km – to and fro five times before needing to be recharged.

It is no longer news that Lagos, a state with 20 million residents, has the world’s worst traffic, according to data from Numbeo, a crowd-sourced global database of quality-of-life data. Lagosians breathe regular traffic gridlock which causes commuters to spend unnecessary hours in traffic. It’s utterly frustrating and can cause anxiety, lack of control, work frustration, and increase the risk of depression at a psychological level. So, the metro train will be instrumental in reducing traffic, elevating mental health and making life easier for Lagosians.

However, Nigeria’s infrastructure is largely plagued with an uncharacteristic dearth of maintenance, thereby leaving things to rot despite billions of naira pumped in. The Lagos metro line has a lot to prove not just to Lagosians and Nigerians, but to the entire world seeking to invest in Lagos. The state government hopes to secure foreign partnerships and private investments with the metro line which will boost the state’s earnings. However the metro line turns out will be a significant measure of the government’s ability to imbibe the virtue of “maintenance” in its infrastructure.

The stations must not be left to fall into dirtiness and the places surrounding them should be clean as well. Lagos is known to be a dirty state unfortunately. But the government can take serious intentional initiatives to clean the state up with interventional activities. Everything that is required to be the trains and stations working optimally must be regularly provided, changed and improved upon.

In 2018, MTA’s New York City Transportation Authority was audited and 33 subway stations were found to be dirty and littered with thrash. The audit found that 97 per cent of stations received fewer cleanings than they were supposed to and 88 per cent of stations received half or fewer than the number of recommended cleanings. This is definitely not what Lagos’s train stations should look like in the coming years.

One look at Japan’s Tokyo Metro and anyone can see how great they are doing and how far they’ve come. Tokyo Metro is a vital public transportation system that is globally recognized for its cleanliness. The staff does routine cleanings to maintain its stations and trains for its nearly 6 million daily passengers. Mind you, this is lower than the targeted 7.5 million monthly passengers by the Lagos Blue Line Rail. The Tokyo Metro has nine lines and 180 stations that need to be kept clean around the clock. Twice a year, Tokyo waxes the floor of its trains, completely removing the old one. Waxing the floors keeps them looking shiny and clean. Moreover, each station is swept and cleaned daily by staff cleaners.

In April, Tokyo was named one of the top 19 cities with the best public transport in the world, according to data compiled from more than 20,000 respondents in over 50 cities across the globe. In the survey done by Time Out, 94 per cent of respondents praised its transport system for being well-maintained, while non-Japanese speakers said it became very easy to use.

Singapore as well can be proud of their efficient, clean and affordable Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) service. A great number of users have praised the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) service for being spotless and shimmering like it was brand new. One reason for this is that they are insanely strict, so passengers follow the rules. This is where Lagosians should ensure they don’t act funny and dump things on the train. Doing that would be a disservice to the vision of Lagos and to the values of citizenry. All rules of usage must be followed and the state government can enforce penalties where needed.

As Lagosians look forward to the operation of the Green Line, Purple Line, Yellow Line, Orange Line, and Red Line, it is imperative that the standards of maintenance for the Lagos Blue Line Rail are kept in full gear and no compromise is made in order to ensure longevity, comfort and ease of movement for commuters. The Blue Line Rail is highly promising and will indubitably change intra-city transportation for the largest megacity in Africa.

Abiodun Salako, a Freelance Journalist and Editorial Assistant at UK-based Divinations Mag, writes from Lagos.