My experience on the new Lagos “BRT” bus
This is my first story on medium and I’m a little nervous. This story is long over due but here goes nothing.
I went to work on the new Lagos blue and white bus on the 8th of August 2019. You have no idea how excited I was to be entering the new bus. The experience was sweet. I know it’s not all that of a big deal but yes it is a big deal to me. These buses were brought in under the Bus Reform Initiative aimed at giving Lagosians a world class public transportation system and are managed by the Lagos Bus Service Limited (a.k.a LBSL).
The Lagos State government is working on changing over from the 14–18 seater yellow bus to a 40–80 seater bus to reduce the number of buses plying the state’s roads, improve ecology of the state through reduction in carbon emission, improve the travel time and encourage people to leave their cars at home and use the buses thereby reducing traffic congestion.
I arrived at Toll gate (7up, Motorways) bus stop at 6:50am to board the bus going to TBS (Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos Island). On getting there, I saw a bus already leaving the bus stop so I had to wait for the next bus to get full. It took about 20 minutes for the bus I boarded to get filled with commuters and we eventually departed at 7:15am. While waiting for the bus to get full; I realized that Lagosians aren’t actually patronizing the new buses probably because they are not aware of the bus route and perhaps, the waiting time it takes for the bus to get full. Commuters travelling to Obalende would rather travel with the regular, cramped yellow bus which leave the bus stop faster than the new bus regardless of the benefit of comfort and the bus fare of 200 naira being the same (I still don’t understand why 🤯). I feel there needs to be sensitization on the bus routes. Another reason may be the particular route the bus takes, as many commuters are headed towards Victoria Island meanwhile the new buses travel to Lagos Island. It would have been preferable and profitable if the government made the buses travel to Victoria Island as there are a lot of commuters heading towards that destination (commuters like me 😊). I feel that an optimal route could be that the buses could exit the Third mainland bridge (TMB) through Ikoyi, Alfred Rewande road, climb the Falomo bridge, connect through to Ozumba Mbadiwe road, make stops along Ozumba Mbadiwe road heading towards the Lekki toll gate and then make a turn at Lekki phase 1 round about back to the mainland.
10 minutes into our departure; I absolutely appreciated the comfort on the bus, it is way better than the yellow buses which are tight, poorly ventilated and uncomfortable. Guys comfort is really key 👌🏾. Something divine you should know is that the bus has a usb charging spot under the seats, how cool is that? You can conveniently charge your phone on the bus if you were unable to charge your phone over the night due to no electricity. Another plus to the comfort, don’t you think so 😉? Moreover, the bus is really cold, you may like to bring along a sweater or scarf when using the bus.
The bus driver had the radio turned on which was a little disturbing, it would have been nice if the bus was peaceful so I could meditate, think about my day, read a book or sleep lol. Yes sleep because, this Lagos life is so stressful. But hey! There I was writing what my experience was like.
August, the month children go on long holiday, is truly a blessed month. You know why? The road is many times FREE on TMB in the morning😄! On a normal day TMB traffic can be so long and frustrating, you may end up spending between 1 to 3 hours on Nigeria’s longest bridge. Recently, the travel time has been something between 20–30 minutes yipee!! We arrived the exit of third mainland at 7:35am, really quick! So that’s 20 minutes travel time on the bridge. By the way, there were no stops from Toll gate bus stop to the entry point of TMB.
The bus took the second exit at Adeniji Adele that connects to Leventis, I didn’t even know that and there were stops along Ebute road. I‘m not too sure about the name of the road 🤦🏾♀ so if you’re going in that direction, this new bus is definitely for you. So yeah, the bus dropped commuters off at Leventis bus stop, UBA bus stop all the way to the last stop which of course is TBS, where I am going 😬. After I got off the bus, I boarded a keke to Eko hotel round about. Timmy is almost at work🤙🏾
I realized I needed to work in Lagos island 😩 if you know, you know!!
