Travel Series: Journey by Rail

Picture from istock by nikkimeel

I love exploring, I love to see new things, and enjoying the season. My curiosity drove me to travel by train for the first time in my life. I remember asking my friend to take pictures of the train the last time he traveled, that was how much I wanted to see the train. I wanted to add it to my list of things I’ve attempted in life, but I never got the chance until recently.

This is a documentation of my experience and my review of the whole experience. If you are in Nigeria, and you are looking to travel by train, this will help you to prepare ahead and know what to watch out for. I will also be dropping lessons as well. This is also my first attempt at a solo trip just for the fun of it. 😉

I woke up quite early that day, freshened up, and got ready to leave the house for the train station. According to my schedule, I should get to the train station in Alagomeji, Yaba also known as Mobolaji Johnson Station, before the departure time of 8:00 AM, but if not for God on my side, I would have missed the train and will have to wait till later in the evening due to the popular Lagos Traffic. I got to the train station, and met some young women at the entrance who were POS(Point of Sale) merchants, apparently the ticket vendors only accept cash. I didn’t know about this, although I had sufficient cash, I also brought my debit cards with me.

Your Money is OUR Money!

I got my tickets and followed the directions of the officials, I couldn’t take pictures because the train was a few minutes shy of leaving the station. I got to the rail yard, the attendants checked my tickets and directed me to the coach as my tickets specified, I got the business class tickets.

It was my first time on the train, so I didn’t know that my seat number was already inscribed on my tickets and there was no one to guide me. I found an empty row, proceeded to drop my luggage, and settle in when I looked up and found the seat numbers on another row. I checked mine and realized that I was going to be traveling in another person’s seat, luckily for me, it was a window seat. Unlike the BRT(Bus Rapid Transit) where I can just claim any available seat.

A few minutes after, a train hostess announced that the train is about to leave the train station, and it also announced our next stop which was Babatunde Fashola Station at Agege, Lagos where new passengers will be joining us. Then we moved on to Funmilayo Ransome Kuti Station at Papalnto, Ogun State before heading to Prof. Wole Soyinka Station at Laderin, Abeokuta where a significant number of the passengers from Lagos alighted. We continued our journey to Sam Oladoke Akintola Station, Omi Adio, Oyo State, and stopped finally at Obafemi Awolowo Station, Moniya, Ibadan, Oyo State. I find it interesting that these train stations were named after prominent people.

The only station I could properly capture.

In total, including the at least 5-minutes stop at each station, we spent 2 hours, 40 Minutes from Lagos to Ibadan.

For me, it was an opportunity to explore, I was restless. I wanted to see everything happening around us as we journeyed. I’m grateful I got a window seat because, at some point when the AC was a bit too much for my shawl to protect me from, I opened the window slides and took in the heat reflection from the sun.

Playing “the land is green” by Ty Bello

I’m not going to lie, my journey on the train gave me the vibe that I was traveling by air, judging by what I’ve seen in movies as I had never traveled by air at the time I wrote this.

The next part is showing you how to prepare for a journey by rail in Nigeria;

How to prepare for a journey by rail in Nigeria

1. Get to the station 30 minutes before your train is scheduled to leave.
2. Travel light; wear something you can comfortably sit in for hours
3. Go with a sweatshirt/ cardigan, or shawl if you are allergic to colds like me.
4. Check the seat number on your tickets to locate your seats, especially if you’ve never traveled by air before.
5. Go with biscuits or anything edible as you won’t be able to get anything on the road unlike traveling by road.
6. Take your charger and travel adapter along, charging ports are available.

There is an adjustable table attached to the back of each seat, though I don’t know if it’s available in the economy coach, where you can place your laptop in case you’d love to work on your journey. This is one advantage that the train transport has over the road transport especially in the case of bad roads and no means to charge your device.

What my business class train ticket looks like

I also want to advise that if there are ongoing insecurities issues, avoid using the train transport.

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