When the City of Kigali awarded a five-year transport deal to three transport firms about two years ago, residents were excited that the move would ease city transport woes and stressful experiences that characterised the sector at the time.

The city authority gave the lucrative deal to Kigali Bus Services (KBS), Rwanda Federation of Transport Co-operatives (RFTC) and Royal Express under the new Kigali Transportation Master Plan in 2013, which seeks to improve city transport, making it easy for Kigali dwellers to move to and from work without having to wait for long periods at bus stops or in taxi parks.

To achieve these goals, each of the three firms was allocated routes, while the small omnibuses were allocated the feeder routes. However, this grand plan does not seem to have fulfilled commuters expectations as long queues still are the norm during peak hours – in the mornings and evenings.

So what went wrong after the streamlining of city transport?

According to the three bus firms, the fleet of buses is sufficient to service all the routes. The firms blame infrastructure challenges for the delays, which they say arise from traffic jams during peak hours. The peak hours are 6.30am to 8am in the morning and from 5.30pm to 8pm in the evening.

What public transporters say

"We have enough buses for the zone we operate. We were required to commit 96 buses, but currently our fleet totals 106 buses, and we have more six extra buses waiting to be deployed,” said Nilla Muneza,  the managing director of Royal Express, the company that operates the Kicukiro-Gikondo-downtown-Nyabugogo route.

Josué Riberakurora, a city resident, says he often waits at the bus stop for up to an hour when he is going to work in the morning. He says buses also delay during off peak hours because they take long at bus stops waiting for passengers.

He attributes the problem to insufficient public transport vehicles and poor supervision by the operators and government.

Bus drivers say they are forced to wait for passengers during off peak hours to ensure they make money required by their employers daily.

"I leave the downtown bus terminal with only 30 passengers for a bus supposed to carry 70 people… remember I am expected to give the owner Rwf150,000 per day. If I fail to get this money on any day, it is deducted from my salary at the end of month. So, I have no option but to wait for passengers to meet this target,” said a driver with Royal Express.

City authority speaks out

The city authority insists that government is committed to ensuring that Rwandans enjoy the best services in all sectors, adding that upcoming projects would help fix the woes city commuters face.

Ruben Ahimbisibwe, the director for infrastructure at City of Kigali, says city transport needs a systematic study to balance commuters’ need for better services with transporters’ benefits.

"Transport firms may increase buses to meet the peak hours’ demand, but then have little work during off peak periods. This will cause losses and push them out of business.

"So, we need a good monitoring system on traffic flow to be able to gauge the operations of the firms and see how to improve the benefit of everyone.”

 Plans to decongest city on the cards

According to Ahimbisibwe, the traffic jams that characterise peak hours are due to low capacity of roads to accommodate the growing number of vehicles in the city. He says plans are underway, including construction of new roads and expansion of the existing, to fix transport woes in the city.

"We have started projects aimed at decongesting the city and streamlining further public transport,” he notes.

He says there is an ongoing study on road expansion that is expected to be completed this August. This project requires over $76 million (Rwf55 billion) to implement, he adds. Another study on ‘special ways’ for public transport vehicles will start next month. New roads are also expected to be built around the city to expand the road network.

 "The ongoing study of ring road around the city will be completed by November.  The road will have three outlets but we shall start with two... It will surround Kigali to interlink Nyamata Road, Rwamagana Road, Free Economic Zone, Gatuna Road, as well as northern and southern roads so that vehicles, especially trucks destined for these up-country routes, do not pass through the city centre,” he says.

Ahimbisibwe agrees that insufficient infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges facing city transport, but says they will deploy ICT in traffic flow management to solve part of the problem.

"We are negotiating with Koreans to help us on how to use Intelligence Transport System (ITS) to control the traffic flow. We have made ITS a priority which must be operational soon. With the system, we will be able to monitor all the buses on city roads and identify the zones that are underserved.”

He adds that, besides the long-term projects for infrastructure development, the city authority will also assess the state of public transport.  "If there is need, we will ask contractors to buy more buses,” he notes. He says they will penalise operators who cause unnecessary delays.

Long queues versus empty buses

While thousands of commuters throng bus stops and terminals during rush hours to board buses to and from work, the number declines between 9am to 4pm.

Dorcas Murekatete, a businesswoman who plies Kinyinya–downtown route every day, said she often uses a motorcycle, adding that RFTC has not deployed enough buses on her route.

Paul Muhire, who also uses the same route, told Business Times that the previous evening he had lined up for two hours waiting for an RFTC taxi. He said commuters lose a lot of productive time waiting for taxis.

A sales lady in one of the firms in the Central Business District, said delays from town to her home in Batsinda have created conflicts in the family, noting that she spends about three hours from work to get home. Most of this time is spent waiting for buses.

Most of the city commuters interviewed by this newspaper said routes operated by RFTC are the worst.

However, Anitha Mukamusoni, the executive secretary of RFTC, refuted this claim, saying RFTC has deployed enough to meet the demand.

"We are going to verify this information and take appropriate action,” she said.

Charles Ngarambe, the executive chairperson of KBS, said his firm also has enough buses, but argued that they can do nothing about city jams during peak hours. He said the firms face big challenges during off peak periods when there are few passengers.

Ngarambe agreed that the buses sometimes delay on the way, but said measures have been taken to solve the issue.

"We met recently as operators and agreed to switch to automated fare collection services (using smart cards) by September. This system could help solve the problem of delays as drivers will no longer have no excuses,” he said.

City routes as served by different buses companies

KBS operates in Zone I, which covers Remera, Kanombe, Kabeza, Nyarugunga, Rusororo (Kabuga), Masaka, and Ndera Sectors. The trunk routes of this public transport zone include the main routes connecting it to the Central Business District (CBD) or to Nyabugogo Taxi Park.

* Royal Express operates in Zone II, covering Niboye, Kicukiro (Sonatubes, Centre), Gahanga, Gatenga, Gikondo and Kigarama. The trunk routes of this zone include the main routes connecting it to the CBD and to Nyabugogo Taxi Park.

*  RFTC  operates in Zone III and IV. Zone III covers Kimironko, Kinyinya (Kagugu&Deutchwelle), Gisozi, Kacyiru, New Gakinjiro, Batsinda, Kibagabaga, Kimihurura and Nyarutarama. Trunk routes of this public transport zone include the main routes connecting it to the CBD and to the Nyabugogo and Kimironko Taxi Parks.

* Zone IV covers Kimisagara, Nyakabanda, Nyamirambo, Mageragere, Kigali, Gatsata, Karuruma, Jabana, Nyacyonga, and the trunk, inter and intra zone routes connecting it to the CBD and Nyabugogo Taxi Park.