Railways Africa

Bethlehem Rail Infrastructure Limited managing director Rowland Ataguba, who chairs the Nigerian economic summit group (Nesg) infrastructure policy commission rail work-group and is principal consultant of the Canac-PSO Alliance, commented on the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) in a recent letter to the Nigerian press: “A further strategic imponderable is the NRC’s insistence on operating the [...]

The eminent British weekly The Economist recently reported Nigeria’s reopening of the Lagos-Kano main-line. In a colourful description of the scene, it wrote in vol 406 no 8822 dated 9-15 February 2013: “Brakes let out a deafening screech and steam fills the station as the Lagos-Kano train ends its 30-hour journey…. Hundreds of passengers emerge [...]

The construction of a 150km light rail line to Nigeria’s federal capital Abuja from Minna junction, 744km from Lagos on the main-line, is under consideration by Niger State, according to Governor Babangida Aliyu. The viability of the idea is to be determined by a committee that has been charged with undertaking a feasibility study.

In late February, the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) announced that 30,000 passengers had been carried on the Lagos-Kano main-line since service resumed in December 2012. The Vanguard, published in Lagos, says it believes the figure is a great deal higher. A reporter who rode the train recently – it runs only once a week – [...]

Following the resumption of passenger train service between Lagos and Kano in December, freight is now being carried on the line between the states of Ogun and Niger. For the last ten years, all goods has moved by road. The inaugural freight train carried 675 tonnes of cement to Minna, 744km from Lagos, on 17 [...]

Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) managing director Adeseyi Sijuade says air-conditioned trains are to be introduced in Nigeria during 2013. He told the media: “We plan to introduce the new modern air-conditioned coaches. In terms of security there would be no cause for alarm as the corporation would ensure the safety of lives and the property [...]

Speaking at the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Permanent-way Training School graduation function in Zaria on 8 February, administration and human resources director Dr Aminu Gusau told 31 new locomotive drivers: “Do not hesitate to ask questions from those you meet on the job. Learn from them in order to gain practical skills to move the [...]

Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) managing director Adeseye Sijuade, interviewed recently by This Day’s John Iwori and Sunday Okobi, agreed that overcrowding is a severe problem on commuter trains serving Lagos. Passengers hang onto open doors and travel on carriage roofs. The situation worsened recently, Sijuade explained, following the authorities banning the operation of “Okada” motorcycle [...]

Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) managing director Adeseye Sijuade, interviewed recently by This Day’s John Iwori and Sunday Okobi, said he expects trains to be running on the 1,413km Harcourt-Maiduguri line before the end of 2013. The news will surprise Rowland Ataguba, who chairs the Rail Work Group of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group’s (NESG) Infrastructure [...]

Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) managing director Adeseye Sijuade, interviewed recently by This Day’s John Iwori and Sunday Okobi, said the system he joined in 2009 had been in decline for two decades. At its peak in 1964 it had moved 3 million tons of freight and in the early eighties, carried 13 million passengers. On [...]