By Wale Fatade
The journalistic instinct for adventure and prompting of three friends propelled me to board the Lagos-Ibadan train on August 31. The three of them, especially the two who are senior colleagues and in semi-retirement, have waxed lyrical about the service. Since it commenced operations on June 10 2021, I had kept a wide berth from it. Even when the Lagos-Ibadan expressway went to the dogs completely, I still stuck to driving, not minding when I had to spend hours navigating the road. The fact that only two trips are available daily – 8am and 4pm- also makes it unattractive as I couldn’t wrap my head around such inflexibility.
But on that Thursday, I broke the jinx and I regretted it. It turned out to be what I was not told and did not prepare for. I will get to that later. Fortunately I took my 14-year old son along on the trip to cushion the effects of a maiden voyage and also for him to experience a train ride for the first time in his life. Having just arrived in Nigeria after a trip, I still had some days left for vacation. What better way to use it than the Lagos-Ibadan train? Armed with Howard French’s Born in Blackness that I’ve not been able to finish since last year, my son and I took a taxi to the Babatunde Raji Fashola station in Agege. Our target was the 4pm train, scheduled to land in Ibadan at 6:47pm.
Cash only
Strangely enough in the year of the Lord 2023, one could still not purchase tickets online but only at the train station. I thought the practice had changed but the Nigeria Railway Corporation is still running in the pre Cambrian era. My friends and encouragers on the train ride had warned me to ignore the first and business classes, “They’re not worth it,” I was told. Thankfully, I listened to them as the standard class tickets we bought were also comfortable enough. My son and I got C3/5 and C3/6 tickets respectively. I paid N2,000 for him as a minor while mine cost N3,600 and as I was told by the train afficonados, it was strictly cash. Trust Nigerians, a young woman in hijab was around, armed with a POS machine to serve those who didn’t have enough cash. I came prepared with cash and paid. I also had a fall jacket should the cabin get too cold as I was warned. My son had a hooded shirt to cushion the possible cold too. We ended not needing them eventually as there were enough people in the cabin to keep us all warm.
Before then, I observed that the station was neat and seemingly well-kept but devoid of life. A cemetery surely would be more active than the station, which didn’t look like a typical train station. Few people were around when we got there some minutes after 1pm, and I asked everyone from the porters to the senior officials if truly there was a train going to Ibadan that afternoon. They all assured us that indeed the train would go to Ibadan as scheduled. Everywhere was eerily quiet with a handful of intending passengers sitting while others were coming and going. A teenager, most likely, beside me kept himself busy with a sausage roll and soft drink with an ear piece pinned to his ear. It still did not prevent the sound of his music from disturbing my ears.
Energy conservation is it
At around 3pm, there was an announcement that we could buy tickets and we moved to another part of the station. Suddenly, power was restored and the station came alive. The air conditioners started working and the hall became cooler. So the railway corporation was conserving energy all this while? A major requirement was presentation of identity cards before tickets are sold, wonderful requirement especially after the sad incident on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line. Those going to Abeokuta also bought their tickets and we moved back to the main hall. There our bags were screened just like intending passengers. Then the waiting game began. We were kept in the hall without any word from the railway officials. A bespectacled man whose uniform read HSE, most likely Health and Safety Enforcement, with whom I had chatted earlier, suddenly disappeared and I couldn’t ask him why the delay.
Typical of such situation, people started getting restless, asking questions on why we were delayed. A mother sitting near my son and I had trouble keeping her two children – a boy and a girl – calm under the circumstances. I became an emergency baby minder, helping to deal with the boy, a four year old as the boy told me himself. All around me, phone calls were flying with people telling family members that the train had been delayed. Fortunately, the officials had mercy on us and told us that the train had been delayed for “operational reasons”. I laughed heartily and told my son that I thought operational reasons as cause of delay was only applicable to airlines. It followed me to a train station. My inaugural train ride was not going as expected and I regretted listening to my friends. I decided to call and berate them for leading me to discomfort seeing how thigs were turning out. The two I spoke with told me that such was unusual and in their two years of using the service, they never experienced a delay.
Eventual movement
Finally, we were asked to proceed to the platform at 5:30 and we did. My son was shocked to see people on the train tracks selling and even sleeping. “Daddy, will the train not run them over like that?” he asked. A man standing with us answered him: “That’s how they always do they will move away when the train arrives.” A pregnant woman in a company of five couldn’t bear standing any longer, she decided to sit down on the platform stairs. “Don’t worry, we will call you when the train is here,” one man told her.
“Move back, move back,” some porters or whatever they are, shouted at those who crossed the yellow line. “Don’t go beyond the line,” they chorused intermittently. Eventually, we boarded and while there was little or no help to ensure we locate the right coach, eventually we found our seats and sat down. We took off exactly 5:43pm, nearly two hours after we were originally scheduled. Policemen and man-o-war men patrolled the cabins ostensibly to make us feel safe. The regulars knew their ways around while those of us newbies followed gingerly. The television screens were showing an old Chinese movie with English language subtitles, the volume so low nobody heard a word. Apart from the fact that the television screens were so small and far off, nobody seemed bothered that they were merely decoration items.
No water for the train
One of the policemen stunned us with his answer when asked what made the train late. In Yoruba he said, “You, the elite, lbetter don’t allow this train service to be destroyed. Railway corporation wants to destroy it totally. Don’t allow them, don’t allow them as they are planning to transfer it to the corporation. It was water, ordinary water that delayed us. No water for us to flush the restrooms and when they eventually gave us water, no hose to transfer the water to the train. That was why we came late.”
I was dazed and immediately I blocked both number one and two in my mind till we got to Ibadan. Indeed shortly after we left Abeokuta where we got to at 6:37pm, the taps in the restrooms stopped running. Incredulous but real. Shortly after the Abeokuta passengers stepped out, the train stopped. Immediately my heart skipped a beat hoping that terrorists were not responsible. Again, our policeman friend informed us that we had to wait for the train coming from Ibadan to pass before we could continue our trip. So the trains are using the same track? Till now, I really don’t know what happened that we had to stop in the forest without official communication. The ticker tape constantly informed passengers of our stops and kept announcing we were headed to Ibadan.
I would gladly suggest that the cleaners be allowed to manage the train operations. Very efficient and courteous, they constantly ensured that the train was kept clean, very clean. They remain the only bright spot of an otherwise dreary journey and if I would board the train again, they would be the sole reason. Even when we got to Moniya they still picked the dirt dropped by disembarking passengers. I doff my hat for them.
Fortunately I had decided to terminate the onward journey to Osun State that day as we got to Ibadan at 7:40 pm, nearly an hour after the scheduled 6:47pm. Shortly after we left the train, the heavens opened and torrential rain descended. An older friend, our host for the night and one of those who goaded us to try the train, waited for us to arrive. Sadly, the railway management switched off the lights at the Moniya station keeping friends and family members in darkness till the train got there. Such insensitivity even when it caused the delay.
A hot meal of pounded yam and vegetable garnished with fish helped in calming my nerves but not enough to persuade me to use the train again. For starters, the 80km per hour is slow, too slow, for any business minded person and that’s why i think most passengers were younger people who are more adventurous and most likely on pleasure journeys.
Hopefully too, the Oyo State government would hasten up and fix the access road to the Ibadan station so as to make the experience worthwhile for passengers.
•Fatade is a journalist in Lagos.
