Our congratulations go to Colin Brader, Managing Director of ITP and to Dr Anthony Ekundayo Mobereola, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Nigeria for jointly winning the 2009 TPS Transport Planner of the Year Award.

The award was presented by Victoria Hills, Chair of TPS, at the Transport Practitioners Meeting in Reading on 14 July for their work in delivering the Bus Rapid Transit system in Lagos, Nigeria.  Dr Mobereola flew over from Nigeria especially to receive this award.

Victoria Hills presenting the award to Colin Brader and Dr Antony Mobereola

Dr Antony Mobereola receiving his award
for Transport Planner of the Year

The development and implementation of Lagos BRT represents a significant achievement for British transport planning expertise.

In 2007 Colin led a World Bank-funded feasibility study for a BRT system in Lagos, Nigeria. The scheme, including regulatory reform, institutional restructuring, staff recruitment and training, infrastructure development, bus purchase, branding and marketing was delivered just 15 months after conception, opening in March 2008. 

The Lagos BRT scheme

The system is Africa’s first BRT, despite many similar schemes being in the development process for many years. It is a new form of BRT that focuses upon the satisfaction of key user needs – safety, journey time reliability and affordability. It represents a transformation in the provision of public transport in a city of 17 million people.

Along the 22km corridor, unregulated, unreliable and unsafe minibuses have been replaced by a fleet of 280 buses operating at a theoretical headway of 23 seconds.  The scheme has been an instant success, carrying nearly 25% of trips in the corridor and nearly 200,000 passengers per day, which places it in the top 5 of the busiest BRT schemes in the world.

To read a news item about the award on the LAMATA website please click here.

This award is given annually by TPS.  Previous winners include Barry Horne, Michelle Dix and Malcolm Murray Clark, Ali Clabburn, Andrew Forster and Keith Mitchell.