Expect fast train ride from Lagos to Abuja soon – Minister

The Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, has said that passenger train service from Lagos to Abuja would come on stream by 2015.
According to the minister, the train journey from Lagos to Abuja and vice versa, would take only three hours, adding that the express train would stop over at only three stations before destination.
Umar, who stated this in Abuja on Friday while giving account of stewardship by his ministry in the last three years, said the train service would be competing favourably with air transport service.
Stressing the importance of functional transportation system, the minister said: “The role of transportation in the socio-economic and political development of any nation cannot be over-emphasised as developments in all other sectors of the economy depend on the efficient performance of the transport system.
“Generally, the fundament goal of the transport sub section under the transformation agenda is to develop an adequate, safe, environmentally sound, efficient and affordable, integrated transport system within the framework of a progressive and competitive national and international market economy.”
Umar further stated that the rehabilitation over 90 percent of existing narrow gauge lines throughout the country was ongoing, being the first segment of the 25-year railway strategic vision.
The minister said intra and intercity train services had since been restored in Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Offa, Minna, Ibadan and others, adding that rail system targeted about five million passengers in 2014.
He listed companies patronising train cargo system for their products to include the Flour Mills, Lafarge Cement, Inland Container Limited, Eastern Line Contractors, NRC and Connectrail Limited.