Nigeria Plans Lagos–Maiduguri High-Speed Railway with Top Speed of 360 km/h

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On August 31, Olufunso Adebiyi, Permanent Secretary of Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Transportation, stated at the 19th National Council on Transport meeting held in Abuja that the federal government is planning to build a high-speed railway system connecting Lekki in Lagos with Maiduguri in the northeast, with trains expected to run at approximately 360 km/h. Adebiyi noted that certain sections of the route may adopt pile-supported elevated structures to meet high-speed operation requirements.

Adebiyi listed the route as part of Nigeria's plans to expand railway transport capacity, citing the Lagos-to-Abuja journey as an example, stating that once the high-speed railway is completed, the target rail travel time between the two cities would be approximately 3 hours. The Nigerian government is simultaneously increasing the share of railways, aviation, and water transport within the national transportation system. Adebiyi stated at the meeting that currently about 98% of Nigerians rely on road transport.

Nigeria's existing railway expansion projects are at various stages of implementation. The completed and operational lines listed by the Ministry of Transportation at this meeting include the Lagos–Ibadan, Abuja–Kaduna, Warri–Itakpe, and Port Harcourt–Aba railways; the Kaduna–Zaria–Kano railway is advancing follow-up works, with the government's current target being to commence operations by December 2026. Lines including Kaduna–Daura–Katsina, Katsina–Jibia–Maradi, and Kano–Dutse are also under construction or in the advancement stage.

The newly announced Lagos–Maiduguri high-speed railway remains in the planning stage, with publicly confirmed engineering parameters mainly including the Lekki–Maiduguri alignment, a planned operating speed of approximately 360 km/h, and the proposed use of pile-supported elevated structures for certain sections. Nigeria's transportation authorities have not yet reached the construction phase for this line.

The Nigerian government has also been advancing another national high-speed railway proposal. In April 2026, the federal government established an inter-ministerial technical committee to conduct technical, financing, legal, and environmental reviews of the integrated natural gas, power, and high-speed railway project proposed by De-Sadel Nigeria. The proposal includes approximately 4,000 km of double-track high-speed railway, planned to connect major economic corridors including Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt. It falls under a separate project review process and is currently in the government's technical assessment stage.