Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday became the first passengers to embark on a journey aboard the newly launched Lagos Blue Line rail system.
The governor, his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat and others boarded the train from the Marina terminal to Mile 2.
The governor, who was excited during the ride, also hinted that the Red line will be completed before the end of the year.
“The red line will be completed before the end of the year. The project is about 95% done” he said.
Sanwo-Olu added that the flyover bridges being constructed for the Red Line will be commissioned and opened one after the other starting from the end of September.
Daily Trust had reported that passenger operations will commence on the Blue Line Rail on Monday.
According to the state government, the partial passenger operations will begin on September 5 from 6:30-10am and afternoon peak from 4-9:30pm. It said the operation will start with 12 trips for two weeks, ramping up to 76 trips/day.
There are over 300 CCTV cameras across the entire rail with over 30 cameras monitoring the tracks alone, with command and control centers available in all stations along the track.
During the test running of the train last week, the Managing Director, Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mrs Abimbola Akinajo, said that with feasibility study, the train system would be conveying 175,000 passengers on a daily basis.
She said that though the commercial operations would have begun in the first quarter of 2023, it was delayed to ensure that all modalities were in place.
She said that the operation of the rail was going to be the very first real operation to run by electric power, hence, LAMATA was being meticulous on all aspects of the operations.
She said that the Blue Line Rail service had five stations which comprise Marina, National Theatre, Orile-Iganmu, Alaba, and Mile 2.
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