Two days after a passenger train from Ilorin derailed at the Lagos terminus of the Mass Transit Train Services (MTTS) of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the terminus is yet to be opened.
Our correspondent report that the terminus at Iddo is still under lock and key with armed security men who prevent entry and exit of people.
An official of the corporation told our reporter that the incident which occurred on June 1 at about 10.00p.m., killed an assistant train driver of the corporation and left the locomotive driver seriously injured.
The source, who pleaded anonymity, said that most of the passengers had disembarked before the derailment, adding that the derailment affected mostly the locomotive and the coach directly behind it.
“Due to the incident, our Mass Train Transit Services will not be able to reach Iddo Terminus, as we are yet to clear the derailed train from the track. Until the track is cleared, our passengers will join the train at Ebute Meta Junction,” he said.
An eyewitness had told our correspondent that the locomotive driver was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Meta, but was rejected before he was taken to an undisclosed hospital.
“The train was close to the last terminus when suddenly it derailed and hit the wall. We discovered that the train missed the track,” the source said.
Frantic attempt by our correspondent to gain access to the scene of the incident proved abortive as security men did not permit entry.
In a statement signed by the NRC Assistant Director (Public Relations), David Ndakotsu, the NRC confirmed that a life was lost to the derailment, stating that the NRC management has instituted a panel of enquiry to ascertain the cause of the accident.
Efforts to speak with Nyats Jatau, Commissioner of Police, Railway Police Command, on the death was fruitless.
Meanwhile, passengers of the Train service have of late being complaining about the near decrepit state of most of the coaches and have expressed deep anger at the recent attempt by the management to increase its fares without putting the coaches in good shape.
One of the passengers, a staff of the National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, who spoke with our correspondent in confidence lamented that the management of the railways were only interested in hiking the fares without offering commensurate service to the passengers.
The passenger, who pleaded anonymity said that contrary to what the NRC management would want the public to believe, services rendered in the train service is nothing but extremely poor, adding that the coaches are so decrepit that when rain falls, passengers inside the train are usually drenched.
Besides, she querried the decision of the management to make fare in the train a flat one, stressing that the idea is unfavourable to short distance passengers.
“You can imagine a passenger going from, say Ijoko to Agege paying the same amount with a passenger going from Ijoko to Apapa or Iddo. That is unfair and it runs contrary to the advertised intention of the government for ploughing so much of our common wealth into rehabilitating the rail system,” she said.
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