January 8, 2016 – Residents of Lagos who commute along the Mile 12 to CMS Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor have commended the Lagos State Government for terminating the BRT franchise granted the cooperative society of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) to operate on the route.
Those who spoke to us said the decision couldn’t have come at a better time. Mr. Gordon Mojaye, a constant user of the BRT said the Lagos State took the right step to instil confidence in the commuters who had lost hope of any succour.
He said he stopped using the BRT about three years ago when the services began to dwindle but had to come out on Thursday to use the new service on hearing about government action.
He admonished the government to monitor the new operator to ensure that it does not breach the agreement signed with the regulatory agency, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).
Another commuter, Miss Maria Adeyanju advised government to put stringent measures in place to make sure that never would any transport operator ride roughshod on the people again.
She stressed the need for government to put measures in place to ensure that the interests of the commuters are protected always, saying that the government has demonstrated that it is ‘pro people.’
The Lagos State Government last Thursday relocated the 1st BRT Cooperative from the operation of the Mile 12 to CMS BRT system, citing constant breaches of the franchise agreement it signed in 2007.
The breaches include non-operations of stipulated frequencies schedules and operations of buses at below 50 per cent fleet capacity contrary to the agreement.
This has progressively resulted in the operator’s inability to meet commuters’ expectation to provide good public transport services on the all-important BRT corridor.
In a reaction to the plea to be given time to reorganise the operation by the operator, Miss Adeyanju said it was late in the day, saying she was sure that the government must have served it several warnings to reshape and reinvigorate its operations.
