Senegal has launched the first Sub-Saharan Africa electric Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network in Dakar. The Project consists of 23 bus stations and 3 interchange hubs. The vehicle will transport 300,000 passengers daily and spans 18.3km and supports more than 1,000 jobs.
Considering this, Prime Minister of Senegal – Amadou Ba stated that at the inauguration ceremony that, the project is a very modern infrastructure as well as a major innovation.
The China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) built the Dakar BRT project that spans 18.3km and includes services by twenty-three bus stations and three hub transfer stations. China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation is the one, supporting and supplying the all-electric buses for this project.
As per the government release, after the launch, the travel time from the outskirts of Dakar to the city centre would be cut in half and urban mobility, which will be increased, according to the project manager of CRBC – Huang Fei.
According to Huang, the project created 1,500 employments during the construction and is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs once it comes operational.
Notably, Senegal has joined Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in the ongoing African e-mobility competition with the project. Rwanda has recently signed an agreement, with BasiGo and AC Mobility to launch electric bus services in Kigali. The introduction of electric buses comes as Africa’s e-mobility race heats up.
Furthermore, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are also making significant strides in e-mobility, with companies manufacturing and importing electric vehicles in the region.
One of the most exciting aspects of the BRT system is that, the shift to fully electric buses by using solar-generated renewable energy sources. The buses are fully equipped with a robust battery capacity of 560 kWh, enabling sustained operations.
The charging power of the Buses is 120 kW and they also require approximately six hours to receive full-charge. Real-time bus monitoring has been incorporated, to ensure the buses are charged based on passenger demand.
The development of the system has generated overall public transport improvements with the renewed fleet, although enforcement of conditions to improve service quality was slow and gradual over the years.
Planning for Dakar’s BRT offers improved service delivery through larger buses that facilitated economies of scale, better system monitoring through intelligent transport systems (ITS), and dedicated median lanes for time savings.