Progress with Nigeria’s new standard gauge railways

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NIGERIAN President Mr Muhammadu Buhari opened the 150km Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge line on June 10, 2021. The double track line, which also has a 7km branch, forms the southernmost section of the planned 1343km line from Lagos to Kano. The new railway, which is being built in sections, will replace the 1067mm gauge line that was completed by British companies in the 1920s.

The extension of the new line north into neighbouring Niger is planned and Portuguese construction firm Mota-Engil was awarded a $2 billion contract to build the 284km cross-border Kano-Maradi line in February.

Network

The first 187km standard gauge section to open in Nigeria in July 2016 from the Nigerian capital Abuja to Kaduna was an entirely new route but will be connected to the new Lagos-Kano line when it is completed. Abuja has been largely built since the 1980s and became Nigeria’s capital in 1991. A separate 327km standard gauge north-south line linking Itakpe and Warri that had been under construction for nearly 35 years officially opened in September 2020. This line will be connected to Abuja via a planned 200km Chinese built and run line from Itakpe; construction and finance was agreed in 2019. Chinese construction companies are undertaking most of the work with substantial loans from Chinese banks funding the projects. In early June the Nigerian government announced it would directly fund the $3 billion northern Kano-Kaduna section after two years of negotiation with Chinese lenders had not led to agreement. To operate services, Chinese rolling stock manufacturer CRRC has supplied 17 diesel locos and four Class NDJ3N seven-car diesel passenger trains with powercars at each end, from its CRRC Qishuyan site. CRRC Tangshan has supplied 64 passenger coaches.