Lagos govt delivers new trains for its rail project

For its red line rail project, the Lagos State government has received brand-new trains from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States.

Gbenga Omotoso, the state's commissioner for information and strategy, announced this on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

Omotoso pointed out that the new trains were delivered ahead of time compared to when the rail system was supposed to start running in the first quarter of 2023.

Omotoso wrote, “Another major milestone in the drive by Lagos state to deliver the operation of the red line rail system by first quarter 2023.

“The Talgo series 8 Trains that were acquired for the red line have landed in Lagos. The 2 No. ten and Eleven car trains which were bought from Milwaukee are here.

“It was necessary to decouple the train to 21 individual cars for effective transportation to Lagos.

“The train will be recoupled with the help of rolling stock engineers from Talgo, the company that manufactured the trains.

“The engineers will also train local engineers whilst they are here in order to equip our young people in the requisite skills.

“Once the recoupling is complete, the testing and commissioning will commence followed by full passenger operations first quarter 2023.

“Each train has the capacity to carry 1500 passengers and is expected to run on the red line rail from Agbada to Oyingbo, with the journey taking less than 30 minutes.”

The state's governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, tweeted to celebrate the arrival of the trains, saying, "On April 15, 2021, when I presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for our Red Line Metro Project, I announced that we will accomplish important milestones soon.

“I am excited to announce that the twin talgo intra-city ten coach Metropolitan trains for the project have arrived in Lagos!”

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