My Lagos blue line rail experience

My Lagos blue line rail experience

Hello everyone reading my blog, I’m sure, with you is a soft drink and chips, if no; then get one and patiently sit down to read this. Why?! Because I will be sharing with you my experience on boarding this newly built Lagos state blue line rail from mile 2 to Marina and from Marina back to mile 2. To be sincere with you, it was my first time of boarding train, I only used to see it when my mom was living around Agege during my young age. I will be sharing with you how the trip went, how fascinating and fun it was, the problems of the service that need to be solved and the business opportunities  connected to the rail that come to my mind during the trip. 

The area view picture of mile 2 blue line rail station 

How the trip went

So now, let me start with the feelings I was having before the trip, I actually put my phone on alarm to wake me up by 6:00am because I wanted to quickly go and come back for I had another things to do, but fortunately for me I woke up by 5:45am, before the alarm could even ring I have taken my bath and dressed up for the trip already, though I had to wait till 7:00am to avoid any yawa due to the area I’m living.

By 7:00am I moved out of my hostel and took a bike to PPL junction, on getting there I noticed my phone was ringing, who could be calling my phone by this time around?! On trying to answer the call, I noticed it was my colleague who had been telling me that she doesn’t have time to go for the trip on that Friday morning, when I picked the call she said I should wait for her so we can go together.

Believe me, ladies are very difficult to travel with, you wouldn’t believe if I tell you, that, I had to wait for 2hours and 15 minutes before she could arrive, claiming that she didn’t plan for it before but she just changed her mind that morning. Anyway we both took bus to mile 2 at Iyan Iba, ooh! I need to say this, Lagos is really moving forward but some things lack proper arrangement though, the bus is not as how it used to be at Iyana Iba again; where everybody will be running after bus because they want to enter, the buses now have pack but you won’t quickly locate it as it doesn’t looks like one, anyway we later located it and it took us to mile 2 where the rail station is located. 

 

We reached mile 2 by 10:03am and we approached the terminal straight to get our Cowry card for 500 naira and loaded it with 1000 naira we were told to wait a bit before checking in with our card, yeah, we were not the only ones there we met some people there and some met us there too.

                 We were all here waiting for the train to come 

After some minutes of waiting, we were instructed to check in and go to the corridor where we are going to board train

Here was me on the corridor waiting for the train to come 

So, the train later arrived at 10:30am all of us enter the train, its door remained open for five minutes and once it closed the train moved.

My colleague and I siting in the train 

To be honest it was very fascinating and fun too, I really enjoyed it, we reached Marina at 11:20am on alighting from the train,

           This is the video I took when I alighted the train 

The security personnel that was there told us to check out first, then check in again so that we could be charged for returning fare which we did. So we got back to mile 2 by 11:50am and we quickly boarded a bus back to Iyana Iba so that I could meetup with the Jum‘ah prayer. We got to Iyana Iba by 12:15pm because the bus usually did stop to take or to drop passengers by the roadsides, on getting to Iyana Iba I quickly went straight to Mosque for prayer. 

The problems of the service noticed 

1. Unable to request for Cowry card online: as it was witnessed by me on that faithful morning, I was in hurry on that day, if the card could be requested online that would have been my option, not getting  to the terminal before buying card.
2. No wallet details on the card: the card should have something like wallet details to permit people to credit it without being to terminal, to avoid delay and overwork for the staffs at terminal. 
3. The passable space beside the scanner-doors: leaving a space beside the scanner-doors is not good enough; because bad intended people could sneak and pass through it without being noticed not to talk of getting caught. The spaces beside it ought to be blocked with transparent glass, to leave no passable spaces except through the doors.

The business opportunities connected to the rail

Among others there are many business opportunities connected to the rail, here, I shall mention ones I could think of when I was on the train and they are the following:

• Taxicab: one of the business opportunities that connected to the rail is Taxicab, as we all know that many people will be traveling with the rail, and once they get to where the rail service stops they will be in need of something to take them to actual place of their destination. Some may need Okada and some may need taxicab to take them to their destination. The cab booking office should be very close to train stations so it will be very easy to locate, those cabs can even be booked online for smooth and stress free service. 
• Laundry service: laundry service is among the business opportunities connected to this blue line rail; because among those people boarding the train everyday, there are people that are in need of a reliable laundry service place, where they can wash or iron-press their wears. The train being the one they go to work and come back with everyday, they will prefer of giving their wears to laundry places close to the train station, so it could be easier for them to collect when they are going home in the evening and even take along when going to work in the morning. 
• Eatery: as we know that train is a long time infrastructure, eatery can be setup near to train station at Marina or anywhere across the stations, the train will make it easier for people living at Marina to come to eatery at Alaba or take there loved ones to mile 2 or Iganmu to eat good Amala and any other food with stress free and no delay. 
• Crèche/ daycare centre: the train has turned out to be the transportation means for many workers, among them are nurturing mothers with babies, and their job doesn’t allow them to take their children with them, and if their children where left to one daycare at their residential area or neighborhoods they have no one to go and take them in the evening, they would prefer taking their children to daycare near the station for them to take their children with them easily when going home in the evening. 

Above is my experience on the Lagos blue line rail and its problems that need to be solved by Lagos state government and the business opportunities that connected to the rail. I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading.