Lagos terminates first BRT franchise, orders operator out of Mile 12-CMS route

Lagos State government has terminated the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) franchise it granted the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Lagos State chapter, on Mile 12-CMS route via the Ikorodu express road, and ordered the operators out of the route with immediate effect.

BusinessDay gathered that a new operator, having in its fleet over 400 brand new buses and also operates on Mile 12-Ikorodu BRT corridor, opened by the government in November 2015, had been granted the franchise to replace NURTW on Mile 12-CMS route.

Dayo Mobereola, the commissioner for transport who disclosed this to newsmen on Monday, said the termination of the franchise was sequel to breaches of the BRT operations Service Level Agreement (SLA) the operator signed with the state government.

“Though the SLA requires a one-month notice prior to its termination, but the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA, custodian of the agreement, had indeed given a three-month notice which the operator failed to honour,” the commissioner said.

Mobereola added that the government’s decision, which had been communicated to the operator, was premised on the inability of the operator to offer good public transport services to commuters on the all-important BRT corridor.

This failure on the part of the operator, the government said had led to incessant complaints by members of the public over poor services provided by the operator and the deployment of vehicles not safe for use by the commuting public.

The commissioner added that the operator also consistently failed to comply with the first BRT operational plans, as stipulated in the franchise agreement signed.

The government also frowned at the non-operations of stipulated frequency schedules and operations of buses at below 50 percent fleet capacity contrary to the agreement.

“The failure of first BRT Cooperative to comply with the terms of the franchise agreement has led to passengers experiencing poor service quality typified by extensive waiting time and having to endure use of dilapidated and unsafe buses,” the commissioner said.

He stated that these breaches, which the operator had indulged in and failed to remedy despite being notified of them, had made the state government to decide to order the operator out of the corridor in the interest of the commuting public.

Following the government’s desire to sanitise bus operations along the Mile 12 to CMS corridor, it had on September 29, 2015, served it with a notice of termination of the franchise agreement, he said.

“But the operator pleaded for time to be able to identify other corridor and remove all its buses from the depot, a commitment it failed to uphold.

“The notice of termination of franchise agreement was followed by series of meetings where government maintained its position of the need for the first BRT Cooperative to vacate the corridor,” the commissioner said.

Meanwhile, Tajudeen Agbede, the Lagos State chairman of NURTW, when contacted, said the union leadership was still studying the development.