The United Nations indicates that developing nations like Nigeria have their urban cities harboring
about forty percent (40%) of their population. Future estimates for developing countries show that the figure will
increase to fifty-three percent or more (53%) by the year 2020. This is a source of worry going by the problems and
challenges presently faced in ensuring that urban areas of Nigeria become functional, livable, and aesthetically
pleasing. Urbanization has been the primary reason commonly advanced by scholars for the present deplorable state
of many cities in the country. While this article does not contest this view, it however suggests that urbanization itself
may have been further driven over the years by the underdeveloped state of public transportation particularly rail
transport. Although railways may have fueled the initial growth of urban areas in the colonial and early post colonial
period due to its strategic place in the mobility of Nigerians at that period in time, its long period of neglect may be
critical in explaining the over- urbanization and decay in major cities of Nigeria. Modern rail system as existing in
many of the developed countries has not only become a tool for urban containment and regional balance, it remains
crucial to attaining and maintaining a sustainable urban environment. This article concludes that any effort aimed at
improving the face of Nigerian cities as the nation progresses to sustainable growth and meeting the millennium
development goal in 2015 may in part depend on a successful revitalization and modernization of the rail system.