Railway Station Terminal
Chapter One
Objective of the study
This paper investigates the factors that influence the quality of rail transport services in Lagos metropolis with emphasis of the following major variables: train arrival time, ride’s smoothness, level of cleanliness and frequency of passengers’ patronage (influencing factors) in order to investigate the users’ opinion on the quality of rail passengers operation in metropolitan Lagos. It also investigates the relationship between the adopted variables (influencing factors) of the quality of rail passengers’ services.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptual Review
Overview of Railway Station
A railway can be broken down into two major components. Basically these are the items which “move”, the rolling stock, that is the locomotives, passenger carrying vehicles (coaches), freight carrying vehicles (goods wagons/freight cars) and those which are “fixed”, usually referred to as its infrastructure. This category includes the permanent way (tracks) and buildings (stations, freight facilities, viaducts and tunnels) (Wikipedia Foundation, 2009). The operation of the railway is through a system of control, originally by mechanical means, but nowadays more usually electronic and computerized. Signalling systems used to control the movement of traffic may be either of fixed block or moving block variety. Most blocks are ‘fixed’ blocks, that is, they delineate a section of track between two defined points. On timetable, train order, and tokenbased systems, blocks usually start and end at selected stations. On signalling-based systems, blocks usually start and end at signals. Alternatively, cab signalling may be in use. The lengths of blocks are designed to allow trains to operate as frequently as necessary. A lightlyused branch line might have blocks many kilometres long, whilst a busy commuter railway might have blocks a few hundred metres long.
Disadvantage of fixed blocks is that the faster trains are permitted to run, the longer the stopping distance, and therefore the longer the blocks need to be. This decreases a line’s capacity. With moving block, computers are used to calculate a ‘safe zone’, behind each moving train, which no other train may enter. The system depends on precise knowledge of where each train is and how fast it is moving. With moving block, lineside signals are not provided, and instructions are passed direct to the trains. It has the advantage of increasing track capacity by allowing trains to run much closer together. Most rail systems serve a number of functions on the same track, carrying local, long distance and commuter passenger trains, and freight trains. The emphasis on each varies by country. Some urban rail transit, rapid transit and light rail systems are isolated from the national system in the cities they serve. Some freight lines serving mines are also isolated, and these are usually owned by the mine company. An industrial railway is a specialized rail system used inside factories or mines. Mountain railways are usually isolated, with special safety systems (Wikipedia Foundation, 2009).
Most public transport passenger operations happen in the train station and in the passenger car. The passenger buys a ticket, either in the station, or on the train (sometimes at a higher fare). There are two ways of validating a ticket. In one case the passenger validates the ticket himself (by perforating it, for instance) and this is randomly checked by a ticket controller. A conductor checks all persons on the train, validates the ticket and devaluates it, so it cannot be used again. Some passenger cars, especially in long distance high speed trains have a restaurant or bar. In recent times, train catering has been diminished somewhat by vending machines in the train station or on the train. When not in use, passenger cars are stored, maintained and repaired in coach yards.
Freight or cargo trains are loaded and unloaded in intermodal terminals (also called container freight stations or freight terminals), and at customer locations (e.g. mines, grain elevators, factories). Intermodal freight transport utilizes standardized containers which are handled by cranes. Along their routes, freight trains are routed through rail yards to sort cars and assemble trains for their final destinations, as well as for equipment maintenance, refueling, and crew changes (Wikipedia Foundation, 2009). Within a freight yard, trains are composed in a classification yard. A unit train (also called a block train), which carries a block of cars all of the same origin and destination, does not get sorted in a classification yard, but may stop in a freight yard for inspection, engine servicing and/or crew changes.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The data for this study were obtained through questionnaire administration. Questionnaires were administered with the total number of passengers on board between the origin (Iddo) and destination (Agbado) of the particular trip covered by the study.
The study area
The Lagos railway started under the management of the Nigeria Railway Corporation in 1896, with its terminus at Iddo. The railways in Nigeria are regulated and operated by the Nigerian Railway Corporation, which was established by the government in 1955. It inherited a rail network, from British Colonial masters, which was designed in a north to south fashion to facilitate the flow of goods, such as groundnuts, cocoa and cotton, from the inlands to the coast, where they were shipped to Britain (Obi, 2009). Road network development started in the second half of the 19th century with the initial opening up of the Marina. The administration of Governor Glover opened up the Broad Street in Lagos. He also linked up the then Victoria Street (now Nnamdi Azikwe Street) with the Mainland in 1866. By 1900 the city had about 15 kilometers of road over which horse drawn carriages were pulled. By 1956 two main arterial roads of greater Lagos had become prominent links with the hinterlands. They are the Ikorodu road and Agege motor road both of which run in north-south direction with the Agege motor road running parallel with the railway line.
During this period, Nigeria’s single-narrow-gauge railway line was constructed and for many years was the only mode of freight movement between the northern and southern parts of the country. The current rail network consists of 3,505 km of narrow gauge tracks and 276 km of standard gauge tracks which connect Ajaokuta, when the country’s steel mill is located to Warri, a major oil city and transit point for goods through its port (Delta Ports).
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
DATA ANALYSIS
The issues analysed evolves through the descriptive and inferential analysis. The descriptive variables are weekly trip frequencies, observed arrival time of trains at stations, observed smoothness of ride and observed level of cleanliness in the trains. The inferential results encompass correlations of determinants with the patrons’ trip frequency and matrices of the correlations of determinants.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
This paper has examined the user’s opinion on the factors influencing the quality of rail service passengers operation in metropolitan Lagos. It also evaluates the relationships that subsist between the variables of the factors influencing the quality of rail passengers’ services. The paper concludes that, most of the passengers make higher trips per week and are likely to depend more on train than other modes. Only a minority (18.1%) of the train patrons in Lagos metropolis observed the nature of the arrival time as good. The study also confirmed that 80% of the train patrons in Lagos metropolis observed the smoothness of train ride as ineffective and inadequate. The study also implies that, majority of the respondents (81%) rated the cleanliness of the coaches as poor and inadequate.
Recommendation
Based on these research findings, it was observed that, train passengers in Lagos experienced inconvenience during their patronage, especially between the origin and destination of individual trips. These inconveniencies entail the uneasy status of getting to the precise train stations and the comfort within. In order to ameliorate this problem in the intra city rail transport services, there should be a provision of conveniences’ gadgets such as television, radio, video player and video C.D. player in order to improve smoothness of ride so as to relieve the stress experienced by the passengers, thereby enhancing the quality of rail service and attracting more train patrons.
The Nigeria Railway Corporation should encourage its marketing and research departments in order to carry out frequent researches on the passengers’ services from time to time to be able to keep abreast of the patrons’ desire and the market forces affecting their demands (Fadare and Omole, 1991). The research department being a data bank, will be able to design policy guidelines regarding traffic flow, quality of service, fare structure which are capable of improving rail services and ridership.
A research based transport study should be conducted on passengers’ trip characteristics at reasonable intervals in order to know and analyse the train’s travel time table. This time table should be reviewed at regular interval so as to improve the rail quality in order to attain more efficient daily movement and arrival of train. Departure time must be fixed to a time which is about 15 min before the schedule, in order to facilitate the train getting to most destinations during the day as much as possible.
Since it has been established that, the level of cleanliness as rated by the patrons was observed in the train as a poor state and the fact that the cleanliness in the trains leave much to be desired as only a few of the respondents commended the cleanliness of the coaches particularly the toilets, this paper however recommends that, the coaches particularly the toilets must be kept clean from time to time so as to attract more patrons and improve the quality of the rail transport service in metropolitan Lagos.
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