By Fidelis Ugbomeh

Ahead of the commencement of passenger train service with comfortable seats and air conditioned coaches by Lagos state government in march this year, Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC has started to refurbish some of its coaches in phases.

This is coming as passengers on board the narrow gauge coaches have lamented over the poor condition of the coaches some of which don’t have windows and good seats eventough the corporation is generating a lot of revenue.

The Lagos district manager of the corporation Engr. Augustine Arsse in response to a question asked about plans by Lagos state to commence train operations with air conditioned coaches said that three coaches have already been refurbished at Loco workshop while another three is currently undergoing refurbishment at Iddo workshop.

He stated that when completed the refurbished coaches will be deployed to the existing coaches used in conveying passengers from Iddo to Ijoko/Kajola and back while another batch of three will be taken to the workshop.

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Arase stated that the idea is that all the coaches used in conveying passengers on the narrow gauge railway line from Iddo to Ijoko/Kajola and back will be refurbished in phases within the shortest possible time.

He explained that the corporation will not in any way be competiting with Lagos State Metropolitan Transport Authority because the latter will be shuttling between Oyingbo and Agbado while the former is currently operating from Iddo to Ijoko/Kajola.

According to him, the choice will be there for passengers to make either to use the corporation’s narrow/standard gauge passenger train shuttle or the Lagos state standard gauge passenger train service.

Mr. Edu Oba said the present condition of coaches used in running the Lagos mass transit train service by the Nigerian Railway Corporation is nothing to right home about in snspit of the huge revenue generated by the corporation from the Iddo to Ijoko Kajola narrow gauge railway corridor.