Long wait for BRT, LAGBUS

Despite the existence of two rapid bus transit companies, Bus Rapid Transit and LAGBUS in Lagos, commuters from the mainland to the island still contend with inadequate vehicles to board to their various destinations, reports SAMUEL AWOYINFA

From Obalende, CMS, Oshodi, Ikorodu Road, to Ketu, Berger and Iyana Ipaja, long queues of Lagos commuters are common sights. They are not queuing for essential commodity; rather, they are commuters waiting for the blue Bus Rapid Transit or the red LAGBUS buses introduced in the state at the inception of the Fashola administration in Lagos.

Commuters say their services are preferred to those of the traditional commercial buses because BRT and Lagbus buses can circumvent the ubiquitous Lagos traffic snarl due to the corridors the state administration had created for them on the roads.

The queues are becoming permanent features, especially in the afternoons and at closing time on working days. The situation has been compounded by the recent clampdown on Okada riders. Not a few commuters embark on endurance trek to reach their destinations daily in Lagos, as a result. 

Sometimes, after waiting fruitlessly for hours for the buses to arrive, the commuters vilify the government in frustration. On those occasions, most of the commuters endure the scorching sun, and at times, the rain.

A Lagos-based trader, Mrs. Labake Okedara, has boarded the Bus Rapid Transit from her Mile 12, Ketu home, to her shop at Idumota via CMS on Lagos Island, for almost three years. 

However, following the stress she passed through each time she had to wait for the buses, she had reverted to patronising the yellow commercial buses popularly known as Danfo, which she had dumped for the then sleek buses.

She said her decision to favour  the BRT was because “they are neater, spacious and cheaper.” However, she said, all that had changed. “What is the essence of having to queue for upward of between 30 minutes to one hour, because you want to board a bus? When they started, the buses were efficient.  But now, it is becoming another story altogether. Passengers queue at the bus stops, waiting endlessly.”

 The BRT, operated by the National Union of Road Transport Workers Cooperative, was inaugurated by the Lagos State Government on March 17, 2008, while the LAGBUS Asset Management Limited, owned by the state government, operates the red colour buses.

On the Mile 12-CMS corridor, both buses share the dedicated lanes. But on other routes, the LAGBUS shares mixed routes with other commercial buses and other motorists.

 Like Okedara and other Lagosians who patronise the services of both transport companies, Mrs. Oboho Agnes-Ita can’t forget the anguish of standing in the sun at Berger-Ojodu garage of the LAGBUS for one and a half hours, just to board a bus to CMS.

Since that singular experience, she said, she had decided not to waste her time again.

“It is quite annoying that one cannot predict the movement of the so-called mass transit buses. There was a particular Monday morning in August when I queued for almost two hours at the Berger-Ojodu garage, waiting for the LAGBUS heading for the Island,” she recounted. The experience made her to opt for the yellow buses whenever LAGBUS is not available

The LAGBUS and its franchises have more routes to cover, compared with the BRT. They cover such areas as Mile 2, Sango, Oshodi, Festac, Obalende, Yaba, Ajah, and Ikorodu, among others. The BRT operates in Mile 12 through Ikorodu Road axis, in addition to Funsho Williams Avenue to CMS. Some of its buses have started plying Iyana-Ipaja/Ikotun routes in recent times.

Another commuter, Ifeanyi Nnadi, a civil servant who lives at Ajao Estate, Lagos, was angry penultimate Thursday as he joined a long queue at Obalende around 2:00pm. The commuters waited for about 40 minutes before the LAGBUS arrived to convey them to Oshodi

He said, “The way passengers are being treated is not fair at all, as no one can predict when the buses will arrive. We just queue and wait endlessly.

“There is the need for the management of these mass transit companies to plan their schedule and abide by it strictly. The waiting time should not be more than 20 minutes. With that, more commuters will patronise them.”

On the day Nnadi boiled, it was observed  that there were four empty LAGBUSes heading for Ikorodu waiting at the Obalende park, with only one of them having some passengers.

Another commuter, Mrs. Martha Audu, who lives at Oju-Elegba, Lagos, complained about the physical condition of some of the buses, as it is obvious that some of them need to be taken to maintenance bays for repair.

While some of them need body works, some have lost their rear lights, which is dangerous to motorists coming behind them. However, the operators discussed the challenges  facing them and how they hope to work more efficiently to serve commuters better.

The Managing Director, LAGBUS, Mr. Babatunde Disu, said passengers’ demand for their services had increased over the years because Lagosians believe that the buses are neater, safer and cheaper, when compared with other commercial bus services.

He said the organisation commenced operation in 2007 with 80 buses and now has 500 in its fleet, supplemented with additional 304 buses from different franchisees under it. But he was silent on the number of vehicles that are currently undergoing maintenance and those that are out of use.

Commenting on factors responsible for long wait for the LAGBUSes, Disu said such was usually the case when the buses were held up in gridlock on their routes, and could not make return trips as scheduled.

He said, “Since our buses on most of the routes drive with the mixed traffic of other buses and other motorists, they also encounter traffic, and it is on such routes you see passengers queue up in endless wait for the buses.

“I know we have not got there yet; there are challenges, but we are improving every day.”

With the restriction of commercial motorcycles on 475 routes in Lagos metropolis, how prepared is LAGBUS to fill this vacuum?

Disu said the organisation had mapped out plans to deploy its fleet more efficiently and to also encourage the franchisees to bring in more buses so as to effectively cover areas where commuters are experiencing untold hardship.

He added, “We need to ensure that our buses are up and running more efficiently, and then we will encourage our franchisees to bring in more buses so as to cover more areas where people are experiencing untold hardship in commuting from one place to the other in Lagos metropolis.”

A civil servant, Mrs. Yinka Gbemibade, said her son trekked from Maryland to where he takes a musical lesson in Ikeja — a journey of almost two kilometres.

She said, “When he called me on phone that he could not get commercial motorcycle to his destination and that he had to trek, I only consoled him, and told him to bear it.”  

 Also, foodstuff seller at Ogba, Mrs. Bridget Owoh, said she trekked some kilometres to get to her residence at Ojodu on Tuesday, as she bore the full weight of the Okada riders’ face-off with the state government, during which some of them broke windshields of BRT and LAGBUSes.

Just like Gbemibade’s son and Owoh, many Lagosians resorted to trekking to cover some distances, which they could have covered with bike ride for between N50 and N100.

The regulatory body of the BRT, the LAMATA, was contacted over the issue but its External Relations Specialist, Mr. Kolawole Ojelabi, said LAMATA was not directly involved in the running of the BRT, but only provided the enabling environment for its operation.

He said, “We provided the infrastructure, like the BRT lanes, the bus shelters and the e-tickets. The BRT is run by the NURTW Cooperative on the public-private partnership basis.” He, however, noted that LAMATA had a representative in the BRT office that monitors what they do and then report back to LAMATA from time to time.

On her own part, the Public Relations Officer, BRT, Ms. Nonye Onwumere, when contacted said she was not competent to comment on the issue.

However, another source in the organisation who pleaded anonymity explained that the BRT started with 100 buses in its fleet in 2008, and in four years, some of the buses have had to undergo one maintenance repair or the other.

Though the source could not provide the exact number of BRT buses that are undergoing repairs at the maintenance bay/garage at Ojota, he said the number could be as high as 20 sometimes.

He said, “The number of the buses that develop mechanical problems could be as high as 20 sometimes, and it could be as low as 10 or five at other times. As the mechanical faults are being rectified, the buses are rolled out to join the fleet. So, I cannot say this is the exact number that is out of order for now.

“Some of the buses will definitely encounter mechanical faults; they have done 16-hour service daily for four years now. They hit the road at 6:00am and work till 10:00pm every day.”

The source further said the BRT fleet got a push from the Federal Government recently when they were given some buses as part of the fallout of the January 2012 subsidy removal crisis, which forced the FG to purchase some buses to cushion the effects of fare hike on commuters.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, said the state government had created the enabling environment for all forms of transportation to thrive. He said apart from the BRT and the LAGBUS, there were other franchisees who ran their own transport schemes to complement the state government’s effort.

In order to ease traffic congestion and minimise accidents on 9,000 roads in Lagos, comprising both the federal and state roads, Opeifa said, massive road and pavement markings had been carried out  in the last 12 months on 289 kilometres of roads. Traffic lights were also provided at major inter-sections.

“It is called the community traffic safety initiative. In 2013, we will be concluding the road markings,” he said.

And to fill the vacuum created by the restriction on commercial motorcycle operators on major highways and double carriage ways, Opeifa said the state government would deploy enough LAGBUSes on routes where they were hitherto absent.

SUNDAY PUNCH discovered that there were some routes which both the BRT and LAGBUSes are not plying and the commuters who either have their offices, places of business or residence there are experiencing untold hardship.  Some of them are: Alausa-Pen Cinema, Ikeja -Ojota, Ikeja-Ojodu-Berger, Ogba-Iju-Ishaga, Ojodu-Berger-Pen Cinema, and Ikeja-Maryland, among others.