Railways: An imperative to ending carnage on our highways

[Mirror]

Railways have been known to move vast quantity of goods and people to long distances at minimal cost. In more advanced societies of Europe, Asia and America, railways are not only efficient and comfortable; they have become the most preferred means of transportation. In this piece, FRANCIS SUBERU looks at the efforts to rehabilitate the railways and curb the seeming carnage on our roads.

Be it the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sagamu-Ore Road, Benin-Onitsha Highway, Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, Ilorin-Ogbomoso Expressway or Aba/Ikot Ekpene- Uyo Road, the menace of trailers and trucks is evident.

The situation has become so bad that on a daily basis, oil tankers, trailers, container- bearing trucks and tippers wreak havocs on our roads, leading to loss of lives in many parts of the country. The question that easily comes to mind is how do we stop this madness?

What can be done to ensure that the menace is put to a permanent halt? The answer is not farfetched, fix the country's railway system and the problems caused by trailers and other articulated vehicles will be a thing of the past.

Hence, in realisation of the importance of rail transportation system, since the dawn of the Fourth Republic, several steps had been taken by the federal government to fix the nation's failing rail system. During the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, his administration signed a contract with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation,CCECC, on October 30, 2006 to modernise the Lagos to Kano railway line. This is the first of the proposed three phase line upgrade.

The project has since been split into five sections namel,y Lagos-Ibadan (181 km), Ibadan-Ilorin (200 km), Ilorin-Minna (270 km), Minna–Abuja–Kaduna (360 km), and Kaduna-Kano (305 km).

Construction has started, but the project was suspended in 2008 following a dispute after which a supplementary agreement was signed in September 2012. In a recent interview with the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, (NRC), Engineer Seyi Sijuwade, he stated that the strategic objectives include providing rail transport infrastructure that will support economic development of the country.

He said the corporation is committed to ensuring the provision of safe, efficient and cost effective transport for the country and become part of the inter-modal system in the country as well as make railways the backbone of the nation's means of transportation.

However, experts opined that in order to bring about effective rail transportation system in the country, there must be good and well maintained tracks network. Standard, modern and well controlled railway stations, well equipped modern workshops and running sheds.

According to a railway engineer, Mr. Adesuyi Michael, there are a number of things to be done to fix the nation's rail system to make it viable, reliable and very profitable.

He said: "All the necessary infrastructure have to be in place and aside this; there must be modern mechanised workshop and track maintenance equipment, a stateof- the-art signaling and communication system, unlike what is presently available, adequate fleet of locomotive and rolling stock and highly skilled, well motivated work force."

Investigations by National Mirror revealed that as at December 2012, contracts awarded for phase one and two western lines are yet to be completed. Contracts for the rehabilitation of the Eastern Line were yet to be awarded and a number of machineries and equipment were yet to be received as a result of which there were only skeletal train services on the Western Line. These challenges notwithstanding, the management of the NRC was able to inaugurate the Corporation's Lagos-Kano intercity passenger train services and haulage of petroleum products on December 21, 2012.

The revitalised Lagos-Kano intercity train services complemented the existing Lagos- Ilorin and Minna-Kano intercity train services. Sijuwade, said that the Lagos-Kano Route covered a stretch of 1,126km. In an interview, he said: "The railway of today is not like in the days of yore. It is now one of the government's major transportation system and we have strategic direction and achievements so far. "It is now one of the government's major transportation systems. We have strategic direction and achievements so far.

We have thought on how we can move forward and we have discovered that government alone cannot do it. We are now making our self available to Public- Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.

"In other to ensure adequate maintenance of all the infrastructures put in place; those who are partnering with us are not going to leave after installation. As long as the relationship endures, they will continue to manage everything that has been put in place." According to him, NRC operations have increased drastically in the last six months; especially in the area of intra and inter-city mass transit.

He said: "In respect of Lagos mass transit train; 16 trains are now moving about 16,000 passengers daily. In Kaduna intracity mass transit; 10 trains are now moving about 10,000 passengers daily.

"Our intercity passenger service include: Lagos – Kano –Lagos train, moving about 2,500passengers per week. Lagos- Ilorin-Lagos trains are moving about 6,200 passengers weekly. Lagos-Ilorin train operates three times per week. We also have Offa –Kano –Offa train service that is moving about 2,000 passengers weekly. Others are Minna–Kaduna –Minna train service and Kano –Nguru train service which is moving about 1,000 passengers and 200 tons of luggage and parcels per week."

He listed the freight service of the corporation to include: Lafarge Cement traffic, Lagos to Kano, carrying about 3,000 tons monthly, Flour Mills (Wheat) traffic: Lagos to Kano, carrying about 500 tons per month, track materials for contractors, about 3,000 tons monthly, sand traffic from Oturkpo–Makurdi, about 4,000 tons monthly and movement of NRC's Petroleum Product from Lagos to Kano.

According to him, the corporation is about commencing passenger train services in Port Harcourt –Aba, Kano MTT Service, inland container traffic, Nigerian Breweries traffic, CRCC Ballast (APQ – APL), CCECC Ballast (SU –EBJ) and Total Petroleum traffic. In spite of all the aforementioned however, a lot still need to be done to overcome the numerous challenges the Nigeria Railway Corporation is facing.

More funds should be made available for the completion of the Western and Eastern lines rehabilitations. The corporation also faces numerous challenges in the area of operation, as it needs more locomotive, coaches and wagons to end congestion and make rail transportation more comfortable and attractive. Obsolete machineries and workshop equipment, porous rail corridors and level crossing should equally be attended to ensure safety.

It should be borne in mind that fixing our rail system is the only solution to the menace of numerous trailers, trucks and petrol tankers on Nigeria's roads.

National Mirror