As city rail stations development begins

It should be noted that for the 66km length transit way alone we are expected to have not less than 57 stations. According to the plan, the Urban Light Rail in the FCT is to cover a total length of 285km. Meanwhile it is worthy of note that the population concentration within the sub region […]

It should be noted that for the 66km length transit way alone we are expected to have not less than 57 stations. According to the plan, the Urban Light Rail in the FCT is to cover a total length of 285km. Meanwhile it is worthy of note that the population concentration within the sub region is not only outside the city, but also outside the FCT. This explains the reasons for the road carnages always occurring along the inter-city routes, around Kugbo on the Abuja – Keffi, and Kubwa, along Abuja – Suleja routes. What gave impetus to the increased attention on the development of the Rail Mass Transit (RMT) was a ghastly road accident that claimed many lives at Kubwa, involving Suleja origin commuters one early morning in August 2008. The gravity of that incidence was such that galvanized Dr. Aliyu Modibbo the then FCT Minister to inaugurate the committee for the accelerated development of the transit way in the territory, with the directive of submitting their report within two weeks.
Also, sometimes in 2006 the FCDA road transport division informed us based on a survey that at least 500,000 vehicles commute to and from Abuja daily along each of the major important intercity routes of ONEX that leads to Kubwa, Zuba and Suleja, the Airport Expressway leading to Gwagwalada and Abuja – Keffi Roads. Conservatively, depending on the number of passengers per vehicle, the total number of persons on the move daily in all the 3 routes could be 4.5 million. This volume should obviously be more now about 6 years after, and the fact that the roads are now expanded. This commuting population is even more than the entire FCT census population of about 1.4 million around the corresponding period. That was the period that we are expected to have about 1.65 million inhabitants in the city alone. In essence it is glaring that the pattern of the city growth has changed, with the transfer of its intended population to areas outside the city and the FCT. What efficient RMT would achieve is to make people de-emphasize the use of roads, such that the road carnages are greatly curtailed. It shall also contribute to making the expanded ONEX and the Airport road have longer life span.
At this juncture we wish to remind us of what IPA states while proposing a Joint FCT-State Planning District in the Abuja Master Plan. That, “in general the dynamics of spontaneous urban growth respond to transportation and economics. Characteristically political boundaries tend to be ignored as is readily apparent in almost all modern metropolitan areas throughout the world”. It also states that, “Even though the FCT is very large, making it seemingly possible to control the direction of growth easily, the fact is that conditions already exist in both the FCT and the immediate adjoining states which would eventually induce development to occur in ways not likely specified in the plan”. These were stated even before the changes on the original resettlement policy and financing of the city development.
The concept of the transit way in the city design is very much in order, but not so the delineated RMT Route now being implemented. We should now be informed that Abuja’s growth is a regional phenomenon, which is beyond the confines of the FCT. Also, the solution to transportation, housing, social and economic problems and others must be approached through the same regional prism before it achieves the desired efficacy. In that case for an effective exercise, the origin and destination of commuters must be determined, and the RMT network be designed based on recent studies, not as initially conceived, in which much water has already gone down the bridge. Otherwise it shall be an exercise in the wrong direction.
 For a start the effort is commendable for the city, but not so as affects the much larger commuter populations in Gwagwalada, Suleja, Nyanya Karu, Mararraba, Masaka and Keffi. The RMT shall be more responsive to current transportation problems when these major daily origins and destinations of home to work places are covered.