With no end in sight for Nairobi’s traffic jams, our neighbours to the north Ethiopia yesterday unveiled a light rail system; one of a few in Africa.
Thousands queued at different stops to catch the inaugural service. Construction of the 32 kilometre line ended in January, but it has taken several more months to have everything in order.
The Chinese funded project cost a mere KSh45 billion, just a little more than our Thika Road project.
It is expected to carry 15,000 people per hour in one direction, or about 4 times that in all directions. With a maximum speed of 70km/hr, it should serve Addis population of about 4 million well.
The trams have been colour-coded, with the green ones covering the East-West route, and the blue ones taking the North-South route everyday from 6am to 10pm.
Fares will range up to Sh50.
The tramcars will consume 160mw and have their own dedicated grid and about 4 substations.
There are 39 stations in total.
Here are some photos from yesterday.
– nairobiwire.com
