Don't cross blue rail track, Lagos govt warns residents

Ahead of the commencement of full commercial operations on the Blue Rail Line on Monday, September 4, 2023, the Lagos State government has warned residents to avoid crossing the rail track for safety reasons.

Rather than crossing the electrified rail track, residents have been advised to use the overhead bridges provided by the government, stated Gboyega Akosile, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Saturday, September 2, 2023.

“Dear Lagosians, please be reminded as we kick off the commercial operations of the Lagos Blue Line Rail transport on Monday, that the rail line is electrified. Don’t cross the rail lines because it is dangerous. Use the overhead bridges that have been provided by the government. Thank you,” Akosile wrote.

In the same vein, the General Manager of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, Abimbola Akinajo, in a video clip accompanying Akosile’s post, urged the citizens to respect the regulations regarding the Blue Rail Line to forestall bad situations.

She also expressed worry about the rate at which people cut fences on the Blue Rail and run across it.

“With regards to the operations of the Blue Line in particular, we all know that we have publicised that the Blue Line is going to be an electrified rail system. If you want to cross from one side to the other, you must use the overhead bridges.

“This is a necessity for all of us to understand and we have fenced all along the alignment for the Blue Line to ensure that people do not cross it. But what we see time and again is that people go there and they cut the fences and they run across.

“We have bothered to put pedestrian crossings; there is access for people with physical challenges, and therefore we have no reason to cross the track. So we just ask that people respect this and respect the rails because if we don’t, we will find ourselves in a very dire straits,” Akinajo said.

The first phase of the rail line runs across Marina and Mile II, with five stations located at Marina, National Theatre, Iganmu, Alaba, and Orile.