After many years of being a major means of public transportation for Lagosians, the yellow minibuses are set to pull the brakes – for good. They are to disappear from major highways. Medium and high-capacity buses are replacing them. BUNMI OGUNMODEDE writes on the various steps taken by the state government to introduce an intermodal transportation system in the Centre of Excellence.
YEARS after the idea was mooted, the popular intra-city yellow commercial buses are to be restricted from plying major roads in Lagos. The minibuses, known in Lagos parlance as Danfo, will henceforth render feeder services from the suburbs to designated bus termini nearest to their areas of operatiions.
The proposed ban is a demonstration of the state government’s commitment to implementing a Strategic Transport Master Plan (STMP). The plan is geared towards the delivery of an effective, efficient, safe and affordable multi-modal integrated public transportation in the mega city.
Apparently preparing the ground for the ban, the government is extending the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) services to strategic corridors across the state. After launching the BRT Lite on the 22-kilometre Mile 12 – CMS route, the government extended the route by 13.5 kilometres from Mile 12 to Ikorodu Roundabout. The latest approval is the development of the Oshodi-Abule-Egba BRT corridor.
A project brief prepared by LAMATA on the Oshodi-Abule Egba BRT reads: “Oshodi-Abule Egba corridor is unquentionably one of the busiest bus corridors in West Africa, with 5,500 buses moving passengers per day. It is a critical link for millions of people who live in Alimosho, Egbeda, Iyana Ipaja, Abule Egba, Ijaiye, up to Toll Gate into Sango Ota in Ogun State.
“Currently, the corridor is highly congested due to high presence of unregulated, uncomfortable, unsafe and unreliable public bus transportation services and indiscriminate picking and dropping off of passengers on the corridor.
“As a result of the above, it takes an average time of one hour, 30 minutes to travel from Oshodi to Abule Egba .”
The project, for which a 20-month completion date has been set, will reduce travel time along the corridor from one hour, 30 miniutes to a maximum of 45 minutes.
Other features are: “An uninterrupted median running BRT service (the BRT lanes will be in the middle); 11 pedestrian bridges across the corridor; a bus depot and two bus termini at Iyana Ipaja and Abule Egba.”
Forging ahead with the reinvention of the transportation system, which was initiated by the administration of former Governor Bola Tinubu in 2004, the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led government is embarking on road rehabilitation and improvement of bus stops to ease traffic logjams.
The World Bank-Assisted Urban Roads Improvement Programme (URIP) which LAMATA launched more than a decade ago is being sustained till date.
In the STMP designed by the government through LAMATA are: 26 water transportation routes, 14 BRT routes, three cable lines and several road improvements and traffic management initiatives.
Speaking of the plan to take the minibuses off Lagos roads at the 14th Annual Lecture of the Centre for Values (CVL) at MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos Island, Ambode said the prevailing transportation connectivity mode has become obsolete and unbefitting for Lagos as a mega city.
Going by a Federal Road Service Corps (FRSC) data, Lagos has the highest number of registered vehicles – more than 25 per cent of the country’s total.
The volume of the vehicles contending for space has traffic efficiency, infrastructure and public health (Gas House Emission and depletion of Ozone Layer).
The governor’s announcement unsettled many, eliciting mixed reactions. Commercial bus operators feel the step will force them out of business. Commuters believe the restriction will worsen public transportation in the city. Yet, others described the proposal as the best revolution on Lagos roads.
Why minibuses must go
Ambode told his audience: “When I wake up in the morning and see all these yellow buses and see Okada (commercial motorcycles) and all kinds of tricycles and then we claim we are a mega city… that is not true and we must first acknowledge it is a faulty connectivity that we are running.
“Having accepted that, we have to look for the solution and that is why we want to banish yellow buses this year. We must address the issue of connectivity that makes people to move around with ease. And that is where we are going.
“For instance, the people going from Ikorodu to CMS have started leaving their cars at home because the buses are very convenient and so, why can’t we do that for other places?
“Yes, we don’t have the money to do that. But, we can go to the capital market and then improve on the technology of collection of fares. That will encourage investors and then the city will change.”
The governor, who described cities as powerful forces for economic development and shared prosperity, said: “This is now a generally accepted fact confirmed by economic data. Cities are the world’s engines of growth, and strikingly so, in the developing world.
“In 2015, 85 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was generated in cities. In fact, for millennia, cities have been the centres of activities, drivers of growth and bastions of productivity. No country has ever reached middle income status without urbanising.
“African countries can capture an urbanisation ‘dividend’ that creates jobs, raises productivity, reduces infrastructure costs and environmental impact, supports new enterprise and shares this prosperity widely.
“As a result, the growth of the next large cities in sub-Saharan Africa represents a major opportunity for business. However, these benefits are not automatic. A number of challenges could very easily derail the pace at which these cities grow and prosper and we need to effectively address them.
“The issues lying at the heart of urban policy making in any city, old or new, developed or developing, include infrastructure, employment, population growth, economic sustainability and environmental viability.
“In addition to these, there are the classic urban challenges of overcrowding, unplanned and chaotic growth, insufficient provision of municipal services, from policing to healthcare, education, electricity and sewage – all of which are top of the agenda in many African cities.
“There is perhaps no better classic example of where these challenges of rapid urbanisation come to light than in Lagos. It is estimated that 86 immigrants enter Lagos every hour – the highest in any city in the world – and they have no plans to leave.
“This is because Lagos has remained over time, and most especially in the last decade, the most attractive destination for those who want to realise and live their Nigerian dream. This ever-increasing population of the state, however, means that we have to be “on our toes” to provide facilities for this more than 23 million population.”
But, there is nothing to fear over the Bus Reform Programme (BRP) being introduced by the government. A high-ranking official in the Ministry of Transportation told The Nation in confidence that the reform will create jobs rather than throw the drivers into the unemployment market.
The official said: “The idea is to create sanity on Lagos roads. Under the BRP, bus routes are to be developed and none of the medium and high-capacity buses that will replace the mini buses (danfos) will carry below 30 passengers.
“It is unthinkable that a city with a 20 million population willbe expected to rely on minibuses for commuting. “Under the new arrangement, the yellow buses drivers won’t lose their jobs. Already, the Ministry of Transportation is working out the logistices with representatives of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN). Consultations are ongoing on the BRP.
“There will be education, sensitisation and refreshers courses will be organised for those who would operate the high-capacity buses when they arrive. The government is not importing drivers. The ‘Spirit of Lagos’ will, however, be at the fore in whatever the government is coming up with in the new dispensation.”
According to the official, the yellow buses would still render feeder services. “They will only be restricted from plying dedicated routes”, he said.
The Nation learnt that ultramodern buses that will displace the rickety minibuses, are being awaited.
The former Transportation Commissioner, Dr. Dayo Morebeola, said at last year’s ministerial news conference that 181, 986 of the 1, 023,812 vehicles inspected by enforcement agencies between May, 2015 and April, last year, were either impounded, or fined for violating the State Road Traffic Law 2012.
A source said: “The new buses are to be fitted with Intelligence Transport System (ITS) gadgets. In fact, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LAMATA) is developing a control base where buses in transit can be monitored.
“Whenever infractions – route diversion and abuses – are noticed, the ITS will trigger an alarm at the control base and managers will immediately call the erring drivers to order.”
Besides, the government has a plan to explore the waterways and the rail to achieve inter-connectivity in the city’s transportation system.
Water transportation
In 2015, the government proposed to dredge seven waterways for efficient ferry services. There are: Oke-Afa (Isolo) to Festac (Amuwo); Ipakodo (Ikorodu) TO Oworonsoki; Oworonsoki to Osborne; Ipakodo to Oreta; Ijede/Egbin (Ikorodu) to Badore (Eti-Osa); Badore to Lekki to Osborne; and Tolu (Ajegunle) to Tin Can Water Front (Apapa).
It also listed the following five jetties for rehabilitation to compliment the waterways. They are: Meckwen (Onikan); Tarkwa Bay; Snake Island (Apapa); Tolu (Ajeromi/Ifelodun) and Maroko (Eti-Osa).
But, the waterways may have become unsafe for commercial transportation due to a surge in criminal activities by kidnappers and pipeline vandals in coastal communities. The state has invested billions of the tax payers’ money to secure lives and property in the nation’s commercial hub.
Light Rail
The contractor – China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) – handling the first phase of the Blue Line Light Rail project from Marina to Okokomaiko is working round the clock to deliver the multi-billion dollar project.
The project’s initial cost was $1.25 billion when it kicked off. It is expected that the cost would have gone up over the years due to inflation and instability in exchange rate (declining value of the naira against the dollar).
Its 2015 completion became unfeasible as the tracks’ alignment fell on a pipeline belonging to Gas Link. The issue had been resolved through governor’s intervention.
The 27.5-kilometre Blue Line will run from Marina to Okokomaiko, with 13 stations and an end-to-end travel time of between 35-40 minutes.
It is being built as a high capacity, electrically-powered rail mass transit system.
The Nation learnt that the development of an Independent Power Plant (IPP) to run the Electric Multiple Units (EMU) inculcated to he project.
The EMU coaches are to move 400,000 passengers daily.
A source told The Nation: “The coaches would operate for 16 hours daily, carrying about 25, 000 passengers per hour, per direction, depending on the take-off point.
“They will cover in 40 minutes the distance which takes the minibuses buses two hours between one hour, 45 minutes. So, someone living in FESTAC Estate but working on the Island would no longer have to wake up by 4am for 8am resumption. Such a person can actually wake up by 7am and be sure of not getting to work late.”
Most of the rail tracks will be on the surface, but some are on elevated platforms, especially the Orile-Marina end – no thanks to the swampy terrain of the stretch.
As at today, the Mile 2 – National Theatre end is 95 per cent completed. CCECC engineers are on site between Marina and National Theatre (now 40 per cent completed), constructing the piers that will carry the elevated tracks.
“Only the stations are to be built”, an official, who volunteered information under anonymity said.
The official went on: “We are looking at next year for the completion of the Blue Line Marina-Mile 2 Light Rail project. Before then, all infrastructures would have been provided. These include: stations, signals and power generation, among other furniture.
“The entire Blue Line will operate over a secure and exclusive right-of-way, with no level crossings and no uncontrolled access by pedestrians or vehicles.”
The Red Line, programmed to share the existing 30 metre wide Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) right-of-way, spanning 13 kilometres from Marina to Agbado is scheduled for development in the next phase of the integrated rail project.
When completed, the Red Line will also link the International and Domestic Terminals of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja.
Also in the pipeline are: Green Line from Eti-Osa to Lekki Free Trade Zone at Ibeju-Lekki; Yellow Line (Ikeja –Agbowa); Purple Line (Ojo – Okokomaiko –Redeemed); Yellow Line (Iganmu – Ota in Ogun State) and the Monorail (Marina – Victoria Island).
In 2015, the Federal Government gave approval to the state use the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) corridor for the Red Line, billed to cost $2.4 billion.
There were reports that the government has acquired four single EMU car train coaches, expected to run on the Lagos Urban Rail Network (LURN).
In 2014, the government, under the administration former Governor Babatunde Fashola, approved $14.6 million to Messrs CCECC/China North Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry Corporation (CNRSIC) for the acquisition of the four EMU trains from the Chinese Government.
Confirming the coaches’ acquisition, Morebeola said: “The government has procured a single EMU four car train operations.”
When contacted, LAMATA’s External Relations Specialist Kola Ojelabi, said the Light Rail project – the Blue Line – was progressing.
His words: “The project is not slow. Steady construction work is ongoing. The few challenges have been surmounted with the courage and dedication of the governor to make commuting stress-free in the state.
“By the time the Blue Line is completed and operational, Lagosians will reap the benefits. It is a worth-while investment that requires patience, Ojelabi said.
TheNation
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