Failed Obama Rail Project Collapses, Nigeria Purchases Unused Trains

[Geee]

Daily Caller

A Nigerian city purchased two trains intended for a high-speed rail line in Wisconsin more than a decade after the Obama administration doled out $810 million to the state for the project

 

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, Nigeria, visited Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday to inspect the trains and announce the purchase, he tweeted. The trains will be used for a metro rail project that is under construction in Lagos, Nigeria’s capital and most populous city.

“Today, I inspected our newly acquired Talgo Intra-City Ten Coach metropolitan trains, for our Red Line Metro project in Lagos,” Sanwo-Olu said Wednesday. “These new trains which were originally intended to connect Madison and Milwaukee in the United States, are now headed for Lagos state.”

“We have completed the acquisition of the trains and ramping up the completion of the ancillary infrastructure like the train stations,” the African leader continued. “We are irrevocably committed to completing the Red Line Metro rail project by the end of this year and bring a new lease of life to public transportation in Lagos.”

But the trains were built as part of former President Barack Obama’s ambitious plan to develop a highly-accessible high-speed rail system across the U.S., Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) reported. The Obama administration awarded Wisconsin, led by former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, $810 million for the project in 2009.