In Lagos, the stress of going to work means you can spend three or even four hours each morning trying to get to your workplace. Then you will have to return home. A superlative city, as vibrant as it is chaotic, the economic capital of Nigeria, with almost twenty million inhabitants, extends between vast working-class neighborhoods located on the continent and a network of islands, where the essential part of economic activity takes place. The result: stormed bridges and huge traffic jams, humid heat and old exhaust pipes. Enough to border on a nervous breakdown on a daily basis.
In this context, getting on a new, air-conditioned train, traveling on an elevated walkway, is almost a luxury. “This train will extend our useful life. “It’s good for our health.”Femi is just joking (he preferred not to give his name). This school principal, who returns home with a briefcase under his arm, sees many other advantages in taking the Blue Line, the first urban train in Africa’s largest metropolis.
Save time, above all. The journey between Marina, on Lagos Island, and the Mile 2 neighborhood, where he lives, takes about twenty minutes, compared to more than three hours by road. The cost, then: 750 naira (about 0.40 euros) instead of the 1,000 naira charged by private minibuses that travel around the city (a price that can rise, to keep up with that of fuel, which continues to increase for eighteen months). . Comfort, finally.
The Marina station was not very welcoming at first, wedged between a noisy highway and a dock where an oil platform languished. But once you take the escalator, the decor becomes bright and functional. A magnetic card (called cowrienamed after the cowrie, a shell that was currency for centuries in West Africa) allows you to open the glass doors and access the platform.
On board the rapid regional network (RER), the middle class scrolls through their mobile phones or glances at the small screens broadcasting fragments of Afrobeats, the famous local hip-hop. Meanwhile, the train flies over industrial areas full of landfills, cemeteries of broken down trucks and blackish puddles. Here you are at the terminal, at Mile 2.
“ For me, the biggest advantage is reliability.testifies Albert, another user (without giving his last name). You will be able to organize your program and arrive at the announced time. » A blessing in this work-obsessed city, where it is not uncommon to juggle multiple livelihoods to make ends meet.
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