As the Lagos Blue Line rail prepares to begin operations on fully electric-powered tracks on Monday, the Lagos State Government has warned residents to steer clear of the tracks as the consequences could be fatal.
The Senior Special Assistant on New Media to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Jubril Gawat, gave the warning in a post via his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle on Thursday.
“Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority continues the testing and simulation of the fully electric tracks this afternoon for the #BlueLineRail. Once again, tell your friends to tell your friends that they should not even think about getting near the tracks or try to vandalise or steal the tracks, the result will be fatal,” Gawat wrote.
Meanwhile, LAMATA, in a statement, announced that the Lagos State Government would increase the train trips from 12 to 52 beginning from Monday, October 16, 2023.
The agency added that the trips would be increased to 74 before the end of November 2023 on the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Blue Line (Marina to Mile 2).
The Managing Director, LAMATA, Mrs Abimbola Akinajo, was quoted as saying, “It is expected that by next Monday, the tracks would have been energised, thus allowing for the deployment of additional train sets for daily passenger operations.”
Akinajo added that to allow a seamless migration to fully-energised rails, passenger operations will only run during the peak period on Saturday morning, adding, “There would be no service on Saturday afternoon and the entire Sunday, October 15, 2023 to allow the complete change over to electricity.”
She further stated, “We need to shut down train operations for passengers’ safety while the switch to electricity is on as well as ensure that the test is carried out in a safe manner.”
As of Thursday afternoon, testing and simulation of the fully electric tracks were being carried out by the agency.
