After
Nigeria became independent from
Great Britain, the colonial-era railways progressively fell into a state of disrepair. Passenger traffic on the Nigerian railways fell from 11 million in 1964 to 1.6 million in 2003. Freight traffic almost collapsed, falling from 3 million tonnes in 1964 to less than 100,000 tonnes in 2000. In early 2013, it took 31 hours for passenger trains to travel between
Lagos and
Kano, at an average speed of just 45 km/h. Although projects have begun to rehabilitate the
Cape gauge railways, economic growth in
Nigeria has made a
standard gauge line desirable.
Abuja–Kaduna The 187 km segment from
Abuja to
Kaduna was the first to be built.
Abuja was not on the
national railway network, as it was
purpose-built as a capital city after Nigeria became independent from Great Britain. The
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) began construction of the railway on 20 February 2011, and it began laying track in 2013. The decline in the value of the Nigerian naira led to a shortfall in government funding for the project. The railway was officially inaugurated on 26 July 2016. In October 2019, the government signed a $3.9 billion contract with the
China Railway Construction Corporation Limited to extend the railway from Warri to Abuja, connecting it to the Lagos–Kanos Standard Gauge Railway. On 29 September 2020, the Warri–Itakpe Railway was officially inaugurated by President
Muhammadu Buhari in a virtual ceremony. Passenger trains began running in October 2020, and freight service began in April 2021.
Lagos–Ibadan A $1.53 billion contract was awarded in 2012 to the
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation for construction of the Lagos–Ibadan segment (156 km) of the standard gauge railway by 2016. However, the project has also faced delays. A ground-breaking ceremony finally took place on 7 March 2017, and the railway was scheduled for completion in December 2018. Construction was delayed by heavy rains in Spring 2018, and the Nigerian government had to deploy soldiers to protect the railway workers from hoodlums and armed robbers. Construction was further delayed by the
2019 Nigerian general election, when CCECC evacuated its Chinese employees as a precaution. Progress was slowed in 2020 by the
social distancing needed to fight the
COVID-19 pandemic, as only 20 workers were present on construction sites that once held 200. Passenger trains began trial operations on 7 December 2020. Nobel laureate
Wole Soyinka became a frequent passenger on the train, calling it "a very impressive work in progress considering the difficulty of really executing anything in this country." The railway was officially inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari on 10 June 2021.
Other segments On 15 May 2018, the Nigerian Minister of Transportation signed a $6.68 billion contract with the
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to complete the remaining segments of the Lagos–Kano Standard Gauge Railway. Construction is expected to take 2–3 years from the availability of funds. In January 2015, the
China Development Bank announced that it was proving a $254.76 million loan for the construction of the Kaduna-Kano segment of the line. • Ibadan-Osogbo-Ilorin (200 km) • Osogbo–Ado Ekiti • Ilorin-Minna (270 km) • Minna–Abuja • Kaduna-Kano (305 km) ==Operation==