Believe it or not but it is now possible for a train to move from China to the United Kingdom.
In an amazing piece of news, the first freight train from China to the United Kingdom rolled into London on Wednesday, January 18, 2017.
Even if you do not know much about geography, you do know that from the United Kingdom to China is a pretty far distance.
To get a grasp about this feat, the freight train passed nine countries and two continents to make it to London. The countries it passed through were Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France.
The journey was 7,500 miles long. It took the train two weeks to reach its destination after setting out early in the New Year. On the last part of the journey, the train went under the sea as it took the Channel Tunnel between France and the U.K. Inside the freight train were clothing and household goods.
When you read stories like this, one wonders why rail transport isn't taken seriously in this country.
Many Nigerians born in the 80s, 90s, and 00s have never been on a train in this country before, and that's because the railway system as a means of transportation isn't really an option.
Only a tiny percentage of Nigerians use trains and that's because it has been neglected for decades.
Lately, attention has been placed on the railway system. The Abuja-Kaduna railway was commissioned on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. The Lagos Light Rail Blue Line promises to help improve the traffic situation in the certain.
Still, these projects are not enough. Also, the Lagos Light Rail Blue Line was meant to be completed in December 2016, but construction work is still going on.
In November 2016, Mr Usman Abubakar, Chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), says the country’s railway system is back on track and now traverses about 3,000 kilometres across the country.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, Abubakar said the NRC was currently working at 90 per cent with regular movement in most stations.
Even with this improvement, there are not enough trains for Nigerians. While the world is breaking records with trains, we are still on the starting line.
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