Iyabo Tanibegiloju is a 42 year-old mother of five. She lives with her five children in the shanty area of Ebute Metta, a suburb of Lagos. Her husband died some years ago and the bulk of fending for her children fall squarely on her shoulders. She had come to terms with this stack reality, since her husband’s relations, were only struggling to eke a living for themselves. Since her husband’s death she has been operating a restaurant along the railway line at Agege, another suburb of the metropolis.

Her day begins around 4am daily and end as late as 9.30pm to 10pm. Since she is expected to wake up and prepare some of the food to be sold from home. However, getting to her house in the evening, formally, was like a nightmare, since she needed to contend with the heavy traffic situation in the State until she discovered the local train shuttle operated by the Lagos District of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

Now, rather than leave her house as early as 5.30am or 6am, she now set out on her journey around 7am to catch up with any of the local train shuttle that takes her to Agege. Unlike before when she normally spends between N1,000 and N1,500 to get her items to her restaurants, she now spends between N150 and N200 to get the same items and two of her children conveyed to the same place. Apart from assisting their mother to sell food to the numerous customers who throng her restaurant, three of her children also attend one of the public schools in the area.

For her, the use of train came as a suiting relief for her. According to her, apart from the financial stress, which going by commercial bus tells on her, the mere thought of being held up in the never- ending Lagos traffic was killing.

“It takes me a little less than an hour to travel all the way from Ebute Metta junction to Agege. The time varies, as a result of the number of stops each train makes while in transit. But it use to take me far more than that before, to get to my business place going by commercial bus. Now I have enough time to rest and still prepare for the next day business,” Iyabo told THISDAY in Yoruba during one of the train rides from Ebute Metta to Agege.

To her, it is also fun as she have enough time to think and plan for the next day, while on her way home, something she could not have done inside a commercial bus. According to her, it is either somebody is quarreling with the driver or the conductor over change or how much to be paid.

Iyabo would want more funding for the Corporation so that it can operate more than two trips in a day. This she said will also improve on the internally generated revenue of the corporation. Another passenger who feels the same way is James, a factory worker in Ikeja. His daily activities begin from 5am, when he expected to prepare for the day’s job. He told THISDAY that he is expected to resume work for the day as early as 6am and as such, to travel from his house in Mushin, another shanty area of Lagos State to his place of worker was quite scary, until he discovered the local train shuttle.

“I have never missed it since I started using the rail transport two years ago and now I can afford to save some few naira note for the rainy day since my salary cannot support me entirely” he added. James further stated that traveling by train was also fun since one will meet all manners of people inside. He said the most interesting aspect of the whole thing is that nobody cares to know who you are. As far as you are inside the train, you automatically become one.

“Some of us can identify a first timer on the train. One can be identified by the way he or she would try to disassociate himself or herself from other passengers,” he explained.

But Frank feels differently. He believes that more could be done by the Federal Government to get the Corporation back on its feet, rather than allow it to be chased out of business by those who are into to the business of haulage. According to him, the Nigeria Railway Corporation once had the single largest network of transport services in the country. He argued that there was a time that the only means which one could connect the northern part of the country was by train though it takes longer time then, it was sure to get one to ones destination.

Relishing one of the numerous trips he had in the 70s, Frank told THISDAY that his father was a petty trader in Jos, Plateau State, while his mother and three of his siblings were living in the eastern part of the country.

“During holidays, I travel by rail to meet my father in Jos by joining the train from Enugu. Then the shrill horn and the locomotive engine of the train was the only thing you could hear in the forest as the train glides towards its destination. It could take as long as three days to travel from Enugu to Jos, while at times it takes over one week, depending on the state of the train,” he said with nostalgia. He further said that all this was in the past as children of these days will live with only the tails of how NRC operated in the country.

But how did he become a regular passenger and fall in love by the inter city shuttle? Frank told THISDAY that a neighbour at Ijora introduced him to it. Though it was a little hard on him at the beginning, but today he looks forward to traveling in it on a daily bases, particularly during the weekdays.

“For me, my day begins from 6am and at time it could be earlier than that. I discovered that the very first time I went to work by the train, I got to my officer earlier than others. The trip was exciting and entertaining as all shades of people made up the passengers. From the local drug seller to beggars, from the pick pockets to the early morning current affair discussants” he added.

Some people take out time to unwind inside the train while others see it as an avenue to see what Lagos look like as the train criss-cross through the shanty areas of Ido, Ebute Metta and Mushin to the ever busy Oshodi market.

The NRC, Lagos district currently operate two trips daily. One in the morning and another in the evening hours to convey workers to and from their places of work. To travel by the shuttle, one will have to get to any of the terminus or officials stops along the route. It will cost one N60 flat rate to travel from one end to another. The transit time depends mainly on the number of stops along the route. However on the whole it could take an average of between one hour and 1.30minutes to travel from Ido to Ojokoro.

Though, in the 70s the doors were shot when the train is in motion but far from it now, as passengers are seen hanging around the doors while some will hang on top of the roof of the train, probably to avoid payment. Part of the measures put in place by the authority to discourage miscreants from hanging on the roof of the train as it travels are the erection of iron bars along the tracks, but this hoodlums have also devised methods of scaling those barriers. One of the suspected urchins who spoke to THISDAY said that they enjoy it in the open as it afford the opportunity to take fresh air as the train glides through the very busy Lagos towns.

Before now, the corporation provided some comfort for its numerous customers as there were first class, business class as well as economy class. But all these now belong to the past as miscreants and workers mingle freely in the train.

The only soft leather chairs have seen better days, while a good number of the coaches have wooden seats. These seats are screwed to the floor of the coaches to prevent passengers from falling over as they go. Also, unlike commercial buses where the conductor will shout the bus stop to the hearing of passengers, in the train this is done through the public address system that could be heard from any of the coaches.

The Regional Manager of the corporation at Ebute Metta, Mr. Paul Ndibe who spoke with THISDAY, said things are not as bad as people think. According to him, the corporation, as a government organ, only went through some challenges, which include urbanisation and influx of other haulage companies in the country.

Ndibe who joined the corporation in 1979 as a probationary training staff, in Enugu, said before now the corporation operated from Lagos to Kano twice in a week. The train, he said, takes off from Lagos on Friday to arrive its destination on Sunday. But as time went by the corporation increased the number of trips made beyond the former two times. Ndibe said the corporation began shuttle services when it discovered that large number of people tend to move towards Ikeja, Agbado and up ward.

“It was as a realisation of this discovery that we decided to introduce train shuttle along that route,” he added. He explained that the corporation operates two shuttles for now, one in the morning and the other in the evening. He said that the first train is expected to leave Agbado around 6.30 for Iddo, while the one at Iddo could leave the terminus around 7am to Agbado.

In 1966, after the introduction of the 1401 class locomotive engine, the 1001s were moved to local services from Lagos. Meanwhile, several of the engines are beyond 25-year life span as they currently lie in their decay in and around the country.

By 1958 the EMD 567 engine had been in rail use for close to 20 years with many hundreds in use across the USA and Canada NRC were on safe ground with this class. That these locomotives are still operating when many others up to 15 years younger have been withdrawn and scrapped, THISDAY learnt, was a testament to the design and construction abilities of EMD in its prime.

At a time when similar sized locomotives had been supplied by MLW and GE, EMD supplied another 30 locomotives, it is surprising that these locomotives were added to the 1101 class as there are a number of major differences with the locomotives supplied 19 years earlier.

THISDAY reliably learnt from some NRC staff in Lagos that this seems to be as close as it comes to a standard export class, being developed from a type sold to Zambezi and identical locomotives being delivered to Malawi at the same time. Though, four locomotives that were originally intended for Nigeria went to Malawi with Nigeria getting four locomotives later in the construction programme.

Used in its hundreds in the UK, the Sulzer engine was tried and trusted by the time the 1401s entered service with NRC. All 29 locomotives carry the names of major towns or cities on the railway including Lagos, Kaura Namoda, Jos, Zaria, Kafanchan and N'guru (Railway workshops or Terminal). Locomotives 1428 and 1429 were supplied with dynamic braking, requiring resistors to be mounted in the body sides.