Lagos Doubles Down on Rail Ambition: Network Expands to 11 Lines, Training Centre to Anchor Local Skills

The Lagos State Government has officially expanded its Strategic Transport Master Plan from six rail lines to eleven, with the addition of a single monorail line, signalling a major leap in its ambition to build one of Africa’s most comprehensive urban rail networks.

The expansion, announced via the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority’s (LAMATA) official X handle on Sunday, is accompanied by a parallel move to strengthen the human capital required to run it. LAMATA has signed an agreement with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to establish a state-of-the-art railway training centre, designed to produce locally trained professionals in operations, maintenance, signalling, customer service, and other technical disciplines.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, LAMATA Managing Director Abimbola Akinajo described the training centre as a pivotal investment in indigenous capacity. She noted that the state has already made measurable progress in reducing reliance on expatriate technical personnel through the Blue and Red Lines of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit system.

“Since the commencement of Blue and Red Line operations, we have trained more than 400 personnel, including train drivers, customer service staff, and operations officers,” Akinajo said. “On the Blue Line alone, we have achieved over 90 per cent local staffing, with technical partners now only filling residual gaps.”

The expansion of the master plan, she added, has fundamentally altered the state’s manpower needs, making a certified training institution an imperative rather than an optional investment.

“For a network of this scale to be sustainable, we need a formal, certified training system covering signalling, maintenance, operations, and customer service,” she said. “Our goal is to ensure that the infrastructure we build is operated and maintained by Nigerians. That guarantees longevity, creates meaningful jobs for our youth, and contributes significantly to the national economy.”

CCECC representative Xiangchun underscored the partnership’s alignment with the China-Africa Vocational Education Plan, a framework jointly endorsed by the Presidents of Nigeria and China to deepen technical education and industrial skills across the continent.

He noted that CCECC, as the contractor delivering the Blue and Red Lines, recognises that Lagos’s ambitious rail expansion demands a new generation of highly skilled professionals capable of managing increasingly sophisticated systems.

The proposed training centre will combine classroom instruction, simulation-based learning, practical hands-on sessions, and professional skills assessments, aiming to produce graduates who meet international railway standards. The curriculum will span operations, maintenance, engineering, management, and other specialised fields required for modern urban rail systems.

The signing ceremony was attended by LAMATA’s Technical Adviser for Public Transport Rail, Olasunkanmi Okusaga; Head of Corporate Communication, Kolawole Ojelabi; other senior authority officials; and CCECC executives.

Once operational, the Railway Training Centre is expected to become a cornerstone of Lagos’s long-term rail development strategy, providing the skilled workforce needed to sustain what is projected to be one of Africa’s most extensive urban rail networks. It also reinforces the state’s broader drive toward a modern, integrated, and self-reliant mass transit system.