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I will start by saying I am blessed with amazing and adventurous friends who are willing to drag my lazy self out of my once in a while locked up life. Now that that’s out of the way… I’ve never gone to Lagos Island Market a.k.a Eko Market without my mother, so when my friends decided to go shopping on the Island I was quite skeptical about joining the party, especially as Eko Market is large and it’s very easy to get lost! But after seeking advice from my mother, I decided to give it a try.
My friends had suggested we take the BRT bus and I was super excited as I’d never entered one and taking a cab to Eko market really makes no sense because they can drop you off in the middle of nowhere!
My dorm is next to the Yaba BRT Bus station so it was very easy to get there. A lot of people were going towards that Eko direction, so there was a long queue. I apologize for not taking pictures; taking cell phones/gadgets to Eko market is very risky (I’ve had my wallet stolen there before) so I left all my valuables at home.
At the BRT bus station, you can get your bus ticket before the bus arrives, but this only happens early in the day. Towards night time, you would have to wait for the bus to be available before getting a ticket. My friends decided to stand in the queue while I bought the tickets, which cost #50 each way (#100 round-trip) per person, which is very very cheap. Thanks to Gov Fashola, Lagosians can go anywhere , everywhere at very affordable rates. 🙂
After waiting for a while, the bus arrived and got full pretty quickly. Some people who were too impatient decided to board the bus and stand. Trust my friends and I – we waited patiently for the next bus (after all, people standing and those sitting all paid the same amount, so why should we stand?)
The bus arrived and we gave our tickets to the bus coordinators. The interior of the bus is not spectacular, but it’s alright, especially considering the amount paid. I enjoyed the ride to be honest; it was safe and we were at the Eko/Idumota stop in about 15 minutes (since we drove through the BRT lanes). The driver was polite and composed as well, and I was impressed. On the flip side, there’s no air conditioning on the buses. The bus was also quite untidy with gala wraps and empty drink bottles everywhere and I think that this should be worked on. There also wasn’t any bus schedule (at least none I’m aware of), but it’d be nice to know or at least have an idea of when a bus is expected to arrive/depart.
Thanks to my friends, I see myself going to Eko without my mother in the near future, and of course, I’m using the BRT bus. 🙂
I recently just started boarding BRT, I must say my first ride experience, I was so thrilled like a small child going on an excursion, it was over filled but when I decided to try boarding on my own days after, it was the least pleasant, the bus was over packed , it became a Molue people standing, but nevertheless I still feel its more convenient, I will still take it any day any time over normal public transport.
IG handle @the_aries_lady
Long stories, very long
ha! would love to hear some of these stories before I decide if BRT bus would be worth the adventure or not..at least some kinda summary 🙂
1st time? Wtf? I’ve been entering BRT since 2007.. well.. i’ve had worse experiences so I tell you, the worse is yet to come
oh no! what kinds of bad experiences?
my first experience was… lemme say fast. But bigs up to d initiatives of brt and actually, there are more conducive and passenger friendlier BRTs.
Yea BRT used to be a very smooth,affordable and convinient.My first time boarding BRT was like 7 years ago when it was first established.
Not a terrible exPerience for a starter.nice write up bt u never profound posible suggestion n way forwrd.
Valid point Etuk, thanks for the feedback. We’d consider this moving forward 🙂