On October 15, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, launched the Red Rail Line, the state’s second railine project, for commercial operations, 13 months after the Blue Line was launched.

The white-coloured train with red stripes above and beneath its window panes would travel five days a week from the Lateef Jakande Station, Agbado, Ogun State, to Oyingbo Train Station, managed by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).

At the launch of the 27-kilometre railway, Sanwo-Olu said the Red Line was projected to be used by 500,000 Lagos residents daily as a part of plans to enhance commuting across the city.

For the cost of commuting, LAMATA announced that passengers would pay N1,500 from Agbado to Oyingbo, and anything between N500 and N1,000 for places in-between. These payments would be made from the Lagos State Cowry Card, a digital wallet for transport payments.

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However, barely one week into its launch, residents have complained here, here and here about the cost of the fare in the face of increasing economic difficulties faced by Nigerians.

On Wednesday, EQ took a ride on the Red Rail line to verify some of the experiences recounted by these commuters.

THE SEARCH FOR ‘COWRY’

The huge black gate demarcating the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) compound from the rest of Lagos led to a world filled with eerie silence. At its entrance was a contrasting feeling; a cheerful security officer, who made light jokes with almost everyone using the gate or seeking directions.

He had a spirited demeanour that would turn out useful to prepare anyone in my shoes for the adventure ahead. When I asked him where to board the newly launched Lagos State Red Rail Line, he smiled and said, “You are abandoning the federal government’s train because of the new one?”

“Is the federal government’s train not cheaper? You should take the old one, I am sure it would cost less than the newly commissioned one. The old one is between N700 and N750, how much is the one you are going to board?” he asked. When I told him, he laughed and said, “You people like fine things”, before giving me directions on how to find the station.

Inside the NRC Compound. Photo Credit: Opeyemi Lawal/EQ.

Twenty minutes and a bike ride through the NRC compound later, I was at the terminal where I would board the Red Rail Line. Two long coaches of the trains were in sight and uniformed officers patrolled the premises, perhaps to keep loiterers away. But there was a bigger challenge. No one could get onboard without the cowry card, or without crediting it.

The Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Agency (LNSA) officers I met at the terminal, told me I would only have to go around the block to locate where to recharge the card. A few questions thrown at residents, traders, passersby after I circled the block described by the officers, and finding nothing like the office there revealed I was going somewhere close to the Fire Service Station.

Whether I was unlucky or the people I asked just didn’t know where I was going despite using the necessary keywords, they kept telling me to go to Fire Service. After arriving at the Fire Service Station well outside the NRC compound, the firefighters told me I had been misdirected and would have to go back the way I had come. I was devastated.

I had been walking and circling a spot for more than 20 minutes with no luck. The train was scheduled to leave at 5:20 pm and I had planned to arrive at the station in ample time. Choosing to believe strangers for the last time, I headed in the direction pointed by one of the firefighters, a few feet there, I saw LAMATA’s insignia rise up in the air, and a huge black gate swinging close after letting out a jeep of the same colour, I ran towards the gate, begging the security officer not to shut it. He was surprised and calmly asked where I was going, he simply pointed at a long walkway that would eventually lead me to my destination.

A SCANTY HALL

The LAMATA Oyingbo Station stood tall in its blue paint on the large expanse of concrete land. It was a two-storey building holding large and empty room spaces filled with white bulbs. At the entrance, two security officers directed passengers to the last floor, as the point of cowry cards recharge and departure.

One escalator and two cream-tiled stairs opened up into what was the busiest part of the station; the ticketing hall. There, a few people, including officials of the Lagos state government and passengers waited for the next departure.

Inside the hall where a passageway led to the train, I met only one passenger waiting. This was at 4:43 pm. He had his body heavily leaning on the silver railings inside the hall. This gave him and anyone resting on it a wider view of the NRC premises. A quick scan of the hall revealed that there were no seats and commuters would have to take whatever posture they preferred except seating until the train was ready to leave at 5:20 pm.

Oyingbo Station. Photo Credit: Opeyemi Lawal/EQ.

As I pondered on the wait, Seyi, a customer service officer with LAMATA, welcomed me cheerfully asking that I feel at home at the terminal. I had barely turned when two elderly passengers walked in. They surveyed the area and also instantly saw what was missing. They stood discussing and few minutes later, they were offered two plastic chairs.

One of them, who wore a sky blue sokoto and buba with a black Kangol protested and said it was unfair to myself and the young man, the only passenger I had met when I entered the hall, to be standing while they got seats.

“People can’t come and wait here which is not too good. Look at the young man and lady, they weren’t offered seats, and we met them here but they are still standing,” he said pointing at us.

“There should be mini-restaurants or shops where people can also refresh themselves while they wait. I can choose to come in hours before my trip, it is my time I am wasting. It is unfair that passengers would come in early only to stand.”

The ticketing point and waiting hall. Photo Credit: Opeyemi Lawal/EQ.

The exit point that leads to where the train would be boarded. Photo Credit: Opeyemi Lawal/EQ.

Except for the four commuters including myself, the other people around were LAMATA staff. The other elder, who wore a checkered wine sokoto and buba also with a black Kangol cap, said that the hall brimmed with passengers when the test run was launched for the train.

“When they ran the test run, there were people everywhere. People filled all these empty spaces,” he gestured at the area with his hand. “Look at it now, people are barely here. This might also be due to the cost of the fare.”

To pass the time and forget the unavailability of seats, the other passenger and I filled our eyes with the view provided by the height of the terminal. There was not so much to see, just a restricted view of the NRC compound. This was made possible by the blinders set in place.

As we waited, other people entered the waiting area in ones and twos, also joining us in our wait. An attempt to use the restroom revealed that it was unavailable.

“There is no water,” a woman whom I would later discover to be a passenger said at the push of the door. “No water in the restroom?” I echoed. “Yes, that is what the LAMATA officials said.”

Three more passengers arrived and we were ready to board. At 5:10 pm, Seyi signalled to us that it was time and we tapped in at a Cowry Point where we got to the train corridor.

In Coach D where I was assigned to as with other coaches on the train, there were 15 seats on each row facing each other. The seats wore ash-coloured coats with green headrests. I was soon to discover only eight of us were actual passengers on the ride. The remaining seats that looked filled were occupied by LAMATA workers who supervised activities on the train.

It was the same in the next coach, where a cursory glance revealed there were about 15 people on board including workers of the state-controlled transportation agency.

The Red Rail Line. Photo Credit: Opeyemi Lawal/EQ.

The interior of the train. Photo Credit: Opeyemi Lawal/EQ.

The doors of the Red Rail Line shut at 5:20 pm, and its coaches swayed gently as it travelled through the tracks with a repetitive low-hum. This was unlike the chugging sound produced by the train the security officer at the NRC advised me to board. The curtains on the train were drawn and more than half of the passengers bent their heads over their phones as the train moved past Yaba, Mushin, Oshodi, Ikeja, Agege, Iju and Agbado, its final destination.

At Oshodi, where the train stopped at 5:44 pm, two new passengers joined my coach and that was it for the entire trip. At the other terminals, more people dropped off rather than got in. By the time the train arrived at its destination at 6:27 pm, only four of us were left in it.

Lateef Jakande Station, Agbado. Photo credit: Opeyemi Lawal/EQ.

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‘WHY THANK THE GOVT FOR PROVIDING BASICS?’

The next morning at the Lateef Jakande Station, just as the newly launched Red Rail Line warmed up to leave, the locomotive federal government train went by at 07:01 am. It had travelled from the Yemi Osinbajo Station in Kajola. It went by, each coach filled with passengers with some standing inside and some standing by the door, with a clacking sound.

Nine minutes later, the state-owned commuter line was set to depart for Oyingbo. In what seemed to be a second stroke of fate, I was assigned to the same coach as the previous day. There were more passengers, seven more than the previous day.

There was nothing unusual about the trip until we arrived at Iju when a journalist with Lagos Traffic Radio 96.1FM decided to interview passengers on the vehicle to know what they thought about the experience and innovation.

Toyosi, a young lady whom I would later find to be an undergraduate was the first person who had the camera set before her face, the journalist and his cameraman wanted to know how the Red Line had made her commuting easier.

“It is a new development because compared to the normal road travel, it is fine and a great innovation. It has helped my productivity in that I get to work earlier and I get to carry out tasks assigned to me,” she said.

“If I am to use the normal road transportation, I get to work late. But getting to work earlier has also helped my image in front of my boss as I no longer have to deal with lateness.”

She explained that at the beginning of her work experience, she would go to work by road and then she migrated to the train service provided by the federal government, and now the Red Line.

“In the beginning, I would use road transportation and then I moved to the NRC train, and then it became easy. But with this, it is a lot easier,” she said.

When the journalist asked her what her vote of thanks to the Lagos State Government was, she said, “No, I am not doing that. I have nothing to thank them for.”

With this, the crew moved on to an elderly female passenger who seemed to have glowing reviews for the journalist and his cameraman from the smiles that formed on their faces. But I was really curious about why Toyosi declined to share her appreciation.

Expressing her shock at why anyone would thank the government for providing basic amenities, she pointed out how it is even more expensive as government agencies are not supposed to be profit-oriented.

“It is basically our right and it is even more expensive which is not supposed to be. It is like the basics and the cost should have been half the current price. It is not supposed to be this expensive as government agencies are not expected to be profit-oriented,” Toyosi explained.

When I clocked out of the Red Rail Line at 7:52 am, I understood that the rail vehicle, though in its early stages, was viewed with a lot of scepticism and hope. The former because of the crippling economic power of Lagos residents and Nigerians, and the latter because it may serve as the panacea to the ever-increasing cost of transportation.
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