Govt to introduce advanced transit system for city buses

The government has commissioned a consultant to conduct a study that will pave way to the introduction of ‘Bus Rapid Transit System’ (BRT) for a better and friendly city. BRT system will be cost effective, reduce congestions in the city bus stations as they will be urban mobility facilitating rapid boarding and a lighting. BRT is an innovative, high capacity, lower cost public transit solution that can significantly improve urban mobility. “One bus system is ideal for a friendly city because some of the bus lanes are narrow and the buses are longer ,we want short buses with strong engines,” said Linda Bihire Minister of Infrastructure (MINIFRA) in an exclusive interview. Bihire said that the other buses will operate upcountry routes and the public will be encouraged to buy shares in the company (BRT). The studies will focus on project management, physical design, business and financial plan, and system integration. Some of the operational plans include gathering information about existing bus and minibus system and ideally put them into a traffic model, and urban corridors will be ranked based on the volume of the existing bus and minibus passengers. The project team will also need to change the operations of the existing bus system. “Until the system planners know what sort of a bus service they want to run, they have no idea what sort of infrastructure investment will help the most to ensure high quality, high speed service”, a memo from MINIFRA reads in part. According to Bihire, the idea of BRT was picked from Switzerland because of similar terrain. “We are picking different tips on how to improve the city from different countries depending on what we want and the idea of short buses is replicated from Switzerland,” she said. The project is headed by the ministry of infrastructure and a special management unit will be established in Kigali city. Government through the ministry will set policies and guidelines on the project operations with an intention of handing over to the private sector operators. Ends

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Govt to introduce advanced transit system for city buses