This question caught the attention of many candidates and this was because of the persistence of the importance of railways to Nigerians. Most of those who attempted it performed well. However, the weakness of the poor ones was found in the shortness of their answers and that most of them did not situate it in the proper historical context.
Generally, candidates were expected to highlight the following points in order to score good marks:

1. The railway facilitated the transportation of goods from the interior to the coast at very low cost and trade boomed; 
2. it also facilitated the transportation of people including government workers;

(iii)       many towns including district headquarters increased in size and population; 
(iv)       it created employment opportunities - train drivers, fitters, station masters, porters etc were employed.