Lagos–Kano Standard Gauge Railway

The 187 km segment from Abuja to Kaduna was the first to be built. Abuja was not on the national railway network, as it was purpose-built as a capital city after Nigeria became independent from Great Britain.[6] Kaduna is an important junction point on the existing Cape gauge railway network, where a branch line departs the Lagos–Nguru line for Kafanchan, on the Port Harcourt–Maiduguri Railway. The construction of the Abuja–Kaduna segment cost $876 million, consisting of $500 million in loans from the Exim Bank of China and the balance coming from the Nigerian government.[6]

The China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) began construction of the railway on 20 February 2011,[7] and it began laying track in 2013.[6] However, various difficulties delayed the completion of the route. Railway supplies were being stolen by miscreants, forcing CCECC to build a corridor fence to secure the tracks.[8] The decline in the value of the Nigerian naira led to a shortfall in government funding for the project.[6][8] Delays arose in the acquisition of land required for the railway through compulsory purchase. Although CCECC had marked the Daughters of Charity hospital in Abuja for demolition in 2014, the government did not pay compensation to the hospital until April 2016.[9] The railway was officially inaugurated on 26 July 2016.[6]

A $1.53 billion contract was awarded in 2012 to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation for construction of the Lagos–Ibadan segment (156 km) of the standard gauge railway by 2016.[5] However, the project has also faced delays. A ground-breaking ceremony finally took place on 7 March 2017, and the railway was scheduled for completion in December 2018.[10] Construction was delayed by heavy rains in Spring 2018,[11] and the Nigerian government had to deploy soldiers to protect the railway workers from hoodlums and armed robbers.[12] Construction was further delayed by the 2019 Nigerian general election, when CCECC evacuated its Chinese employees as a precaution.[13] Progress was slowed in 2020 by the social distancing needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, as only 20 workers were present on construction sites that once held 200.[14] The railway began passenger-carrying trial operations on December 7, 2020, with a single round-trip per day in the initial phase.[2] The 156-km journey taken 2:40, which is scheduled to be cut to only 2 hours by the official opening.[15]

On 15 May 2018, the Nigerian Minister of Transportation signed a $6.68 billion contract with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to complete the remaining segments of the Lagos–Kano Standard Gauge Railway. Construction is expected to take 2–3 years from the availability of funds.[16]

• Ibadan-Osogbo-Ilorin (200 km)
• Osogbo–Ado Ekiti [17]
• Ilorin-Minna (270 km)
• Minna–Abuja
• Kaduna-Kano (305 km)

In 1987, the Nigerian government awarded a contract to build the country's first standard gauge railway, linking the mines at Itakpe to the Ajaokuta Steel Mill and onwards to the port city of Warri. However, the project stagnated and was still not finished when the Abuja–Kaduna line opened. CCECC took over construction on the line, with expected completion in 2020.[18] In October 2019, the government signed a $3.9 billion contract with the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited to extend the railway from Warri to Abuja, connecting it to the Lagos–Kanos Standard Gauge Railway.[19]