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Nigeria Railroads
In 1990 the rail system consisted of 3,500 kilometers
of
narrow-gauge (1.067-meter) track. The system's basic
elements
were two main lines running inland from the coast: one, in
the
west from Lagos to Kano, opened in 1912, and the other, in
the
east from Port Harcourt to a conjunction with the western
line at
Kaduna, opened in 1926. Three major extensions were
subsequently
constructed. One was a branch line from Zaria to Kaura
Namoda, an
important agricultural area in the northwest, completed in
1929.
The second was a branch from Kano to Nguru, a
cattle-raising
region in the northeast, completed in 1930. The third, a
645-
kilometer branch from the eastern line to Maiduguri, was
completed in 1964. A short spur to the mining area at Jos
and two
short branches from Lagos and Kaduna rounded out the
system.
Poor maintenance, inadequate government funding, and
declining traffic all contributed to a deterioration of
the rail
system. A plan to convert the entire system to standard
gauge
(1.435-meter) by laying new track parallel to the old was
shelved
in the early 1980s for lack of funds. Construction of a
new line
from Oturkpo to the steelworks at Ajaokuta was also halted
in the
mid-1980s. In 1988 the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC),
operator of the system, declared bankruptcy. In an attempt
to cut
an inefficient and oversized staff, the government laid
off onequarter of NRC's workforce. The remainder responded by
shutting
down the entire system for six months. In 1989 some trains
were
reported running again, but the system still was
reportedly
tottering on the verge of total breakdown.
Data as of June 1991
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