According to the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the Lagos-Kano train service will go into operation from Friday August 13, the train would leave Lagos on Friday evening and arrive in Kano on Sunday morning, also the corporation had concluded plans to restart the Kaduna to Kafanchan and Kaduna to Kano train service before the end of August, in which it would rehabilitate 100 wagons to further strengthen the rail sector within the next two months and 21 of the rehabilitated wagons would be used in the northern district of the rail service comprising Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Katsina and Zamfara States.
The Minna-Kaduna rail mass transit had been active for the past one month and that patronage was increasing on every trip. The service runs on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, the train leaves Minna at 7 a.m. and leaves Kaduna at about 2.30 p.m, since most of the routes were on narrow gauge, the corporation would strengthen its maintenance work to ensure hitch-free operation, also the corporation had strengthened its collaboration with key security agencies and other relevant stakeholders to address vandalism on Railway properties.
However, the Nigerian Railway Corporation enjoined Nigerians to take advantage of the rail service to promote the coordinated development of the regional economy. Rail transport plays a significant role in the socio-economic activity of any nation, now that private investors can bring in coaches and run by having a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), this could stimulate socio-economic growth and breathes new life into the failing public transportation system, also, privatizing the railway network could facilitate the process of industrialization and urbanization.
Contributor: Nurudeen Adeyemi
