The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) has said that the Blue Line Metro Rail, which began commercial operations on September 4, 2023, had moved 583,000 passengers as of January 4, 2024.
LAMATA disclosed this in a post via its official X (formerly Twitter) handle of LAMATA on Thursday.
“Since its launch on September 4th 2023, the Blue Line, the first of several planned rail lines in Lagos, has already served an impressive 583,000 passengers by January 4th, 2024, demonstrating its positive impact on the city’s transportation system,” the statement on LAMATA’s X handle read.
Recall that in January 2023, Nairametrics reported that then-President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the first phase of the Lagos Blue Rail (from Marina to Mile 2) on January 24, 2023.
In September 2023, the same month that the Blue Line was launched for commercial operations, Engr. Abdulrahaman B. Yusuf, the Government Inspector of Railways of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, certified the Blue Line as safe for passenger operations.
What you should know
The Blue Line is a 27.5km railway that will run from Marina to Okokomaiko with 13 stations and an end-to-end journey of 35 minutes, on an exclusive right-of-way, with no level crossings, and no uncontrolled access by pedestrians or vehicles.
However, only the Phase 1 of the Blue Line (from Marina to Mile 2) has been completed and commenced commercial operations.
The Blue Line operated 12 daily trips for the first four weeks of commercial operations. Though it was planned that after the first month, the daily trips on the Blue Line will increase to 76, only 54 daily trips could be achieved, until toward the later part of 2023.
During the commissioning of the Phase 1 of the Blue Line in January 2023, the Lagos State Government signed the commencement of the Phase 2 (from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko) of the Blue Line project.
It was earlier reported that the Managing Director of LAMATA, Engr. Abimbola Akinajo said the Phase 2 of the Blue Line is expected to be completed in 2027.
Also, it was reported that the Ogun State Government plans to extend the Blue Line metro rail project into Agbara. The project would be executed under the Lagos-Ogun Joint Development Initiative and the Ogun State Government.
