The Lagos State Government on Tuesday announced that it has received 2 trains, TALGO Serie 8, for the Red Line Rail System.
The arrival of the trains marks the achievement of another major milestone in its determination of the Lagos State government to determine to deliver the operation of the Red Line Rail System by the first quarter of 2023.
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued by the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, who said the TALGO SERIES 8 Trains acquired for the Red Line have finally arrived in Lagos from Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Omotosho said that the 2 Nos. Ten and Eleven Car intra city trains, which were bought from Milwaukee for the rail project are here.
What the Lagos State Commissioner for Information is saying
Omotosho explained that it was necessary to decouple the train into 21 individual cars for effective transportation to Lagos, adding that the trains will be recoupled with the help of rolling stock Engineers from Talgo, the company that manufactured the trains in the United State of America.
He said, “The Engineers will also take the opportunity to train our local Engineers whilst they are here to equip our young people with the requisite skills. Once the recoupling is complete, the testing and commissioning will commence followed by full passenger operations in the first quarter of 2023.
“Each train can carry 1500 passengers and is expected to run on the Red Line Rail from Agbado to Oyingbo, with the journey taking less than 30 minutes.’’
What you should know
- The 37-kilometre Red Line rail project, which was flagged off by Governor Sanwo-Olu in April 2021, is expected to have 8 train stations from Agbado to Oyingbo in the first phase, while terminating at Iddo in the second phase
- The Red Line is part of the state government’s vision of an integrated multimodal transportation system contained in the State’s Strategic Transport Master Plan (STMP), developed by LAMATA, which aims ultimately to birth a world-class transportation network that will support the state’s profile, as the economic capital of Nigeria and Africa.
- The Lagos State Government had earlier assured that the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Red Line project will be completed before the end of 2022 as earlier promised.