The Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) has announced that the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Redline will begin operations in September 2024.

The LAMATA Managing Director, Abimbola Akinajo, announced this at a press conference organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation and its agencies in Lagos on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

Akinajo stated that the Redline rail is 99 per cent ready and would begin operations in the last quarter of the year.

The LAMATA boss, who was represented by the Director for Rail, Olasukanmi Okusaga, said the technical test run for the Redline system had commenced, ahead of September.

“The train will be having four trips per day from Oyingbo to Agbado, 8:30 a.m. in the morning; 12:30 p.m. in the afternoon; and this will run for four weeks,” she said.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of Lagos Bus Services Limited (LBSL), Idowu Oguntona, said transportation had been provided to two million Lagos residents from May till date.

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Oguntona added that the LBSL has an accredited high-capacity training school to train drivers.

“We have also established a Sustainable Policy to decarbonise our fleet and this will help us to be environmentally responsible,” he said.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Sola Giwa, said the Bus Reform Initiative of the state government was to ensure safety, effective, and efficient transportation in the state.

Giwa noted that transportation business would no longer be a comers affair, noting that the government would streamline the sector for better efficiency.

He added that from August, all trucks heading to Lekki axis must come under the state’s call-up system.

On his part, the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, said the session was to serve as a feedback mechanism to enhance the operations of the ministry.

Osiyemi said the state government would continue to create a safe environment for the people through a functional database of everyone who entered Lagos.

He stated: “We are trying to ensure that we get data of people that come in and go out of Lagos in our interstate parks. We have a consultant working with us.

“These parks will register with the Ministry of Transport. This affords us with planning to ensure security for the state.”

The Star