Million dollar ‘Metro-Bus’ integrated transport project for Maputo, Matola & Boane to start operations soon

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Million dollar ‘Metro-Bus’ integrated transport project for Maputo, Matola & Boane to start operations soon

9:57 CAT | 05 Oct 2017

The Greater Maputo Metropolitan Area will benefit from an integrated system of public passenger transport, consisting of 16 rail cars and 100 buses, as from December.

This project, known as ‘Metro-Bus’, budgeted at more than a million US dollars, will ensure regular connections between Maputo and Matola cities and Boane district. The railcars are owned by the private Mozambican company Fleetrail, which will work in partnership with the publicly owned port and rail company, CFM, which owns the rail infrastructure.

The ship transporting the rail cars docked in Maputo port last week, and the unloading of the equipment began on Sunday.

“We already have the buses and the first shipment of railcars in Mozambique”, Fleetrail spokesperson Kim Cruz told reporters on Tuesday. “Right now we are in the preparatory phase, and our expectations are that by the end of this year or, at the latest, by early 2018, we shall be operating”.

The idea is that trains, each consisting of four railcars, will unload passengers at Maputo central rail station, and they will immediately transfer to buses for the journey to their final destinations in various parts of the city.

Cruz said that Fleetrail is now working on the prices to be charged for a joint rail and bus pass. “Anyone who buys a pass will have access, not only to our trains, but also to our buses”, he said. “This is a single pass that will allow free circulation in the trains and buses at any time”.

The trains will each consist of four railcars, operated by diesel, each able to carry 540 passengers. The railcars were acquired from New Zealand. On Mozambican social media there has been criticism of the fact that the railcars, which used to form part of the Auckland public transport system, are 50 years old.

Also Read: Auckland’s old trains off to Mozambique at last – Radio New Zeland

To operate this system, Fleetrail first had to obtain authorisation from CFM to run trains long its tracks.

Cruz claimed that, when the integrated system comes into operations, it will reduce traffic on Maputo’s main roads by 20 per cent.

See below a video presentation of the project posted on Youtube on February 2016: