The train service from Lagos to Kano has improved both in terms of equipment and customer service, according to Sunday Okobi, Ugo Aligo and Adedayo Adejobi, who recently embarked on the 22-hour journey. However there is still a long way to go in satisfying the burgeoning demand for this relatively affordable form of mass transit...
A party of three journalists from THISDAY embarked on a journey to Kano from Lagos to ascertain how effective the train service works, and how well the Nigerian Railway Corporation had used the funds set aside by the Federal Government to improve the sector and lives of Nigerians through its operations. With about five million passengers travelling by rail in 2013 and an 80 per cent increase from 2009 in the operation of the weekly passenger train from Lagos to Kano and Offa to Kano as well as the 16 daily mass transit train trips within Lagos metropolis, the burden on the roads in the areas connected by the western rail line has reduced, even though there is still a long way to go in make the railway a viable alternative to the congested roads.
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