One full week of free rides for all as Metrobus kicks off in Maputo

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One full week of free rides for all as Metrobus kicks off in Maputo

11:00 CAT | 18 Dec 2017

Notícias

As from today, Maputo is getting a new public transport system, includes rail and bus links to the suburbs, with the aim of reducing traffic on the capital’s roads. The Metro-Bus road-rail initiative will be offering free travel during its first week of operation, a Ministry of Transport and Communications statement announces, so that people can get to know the new system.

Investment and operating costs will be fully covered by the private operator, in partnership with the Ports and Railways of Mozambique (CFM) and the municipal councils of Maputo, Matola and Boane, as well as with the Machava and Marracuene district governments.

The project will eventually cover 25 road and rail stations, “with all the necessary conditions in place to start the first phase”, the Ministry of Transport and Communication announces.

The director general of Fleetrail, Amade Camal, the company responsible for the project, announced in November in Jornal Notícias that the system was aimed at middle-income commuters class, with monthly tickets costing 3,500 meticais (EUR 50.00), shorter durations also available.

The monthly ticket price is equivalent to one third of the country’s highest minimum wage, according to 2017 figures.

The idea, Camal added, was that commuters leave their cars at home, freeing up the roads for the ‘Chapas’- minibus vans adapted for public transport, which travel generally overcrowded.

The transport crisis has resulted in the use of open goods vehicles to transport people instead of freight round the capital, a means of transport popularly referred to as ‘My Love’, because passengers are obliged to embrace each other in order not to fall off the vehicle.

Source: Lusa