After the TER train in 2021, the West African country is inaugurating its first rapid public transport network this Sunday, this time with 100% electric buses. The French participated massively in the project, as this French architect and engineer explains.
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This flagship project aims to relieve congestion on the roads of the Senegalese capital, and make travel between the suburbs and the city center easier. The work began at the end of 2019. It was slightly delayed due to Covid and some demonstrations which caused breakages. The project concerns a route on its own site, serving 23 stations. The duration of the longest journey will be reduced from an hour and a half to 45 minutes.
“The project is developing from the northeast of the peninsula to almost the hypercenter of Dakar, near the Plateau, explains the head of mission, David Peltre, architect-engineer from Nancy, who works for the Ingerop companyproject manager of the operation. These are 18 kilometers which cross the densest districts of the city, which immediately gives quite dizzying prospects in terms of attendance, since the projections, low range, are 300,000 passengers per day, upon entry into service. “
This “corridor” is part of the city of Dakar by also integrating soft modes of transport, pedestrians and bicycles, all accompanied by continuous landscaping. This dedicated bus reinforces the regional express train, inaugurated in 2021. The two systems aim to be interconnected soon by 32 new feeder bus lines and thus largely contribute to eliminating the traffic jams which are paralyzing Dakar.
“Not so long ago, we were in Dakar, with five million inhabitants, continues David Peltre. We will quickly reach seven million inhabitants here, with a densification which will take place by verticalization of the city given the impossibility of spreading out further, since the buildings are currently not very high. So there will be many more inhabitants each year. The motorization rate is also quite low, but the progression is dazzling, so mass transport must take over very quickly.”
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A world first
Completely electric, the 121 buses run on batteries, soon to be recharged using clean energy. “The 23 stations are already entirely powered by solar energy, assures the Frenchman. Buses, eventually, will be too. Today, they are on traditional charging stations, but within a year, there is the objective of fully powering them through a solar farm project.”
The project generated the creation of a thousand direct jobs. The budget is partly financed by the AFD, the French Development Agency, particularly for rolling stock. It is also a group in which the French are involved (Meridiam and Fonsis – Senegal’s sovereign strategic investment fund), which won the concession for the new buses for fifteen years.
“The lines were very old and sometimes even informal,” notes David Peltre. These rolling stock are generally very dilapidated. This is a pivotal time that is unfolding, a great paradigm shift in travel habits. We are really moving towards modern intermodality, with state-of-the-art equipment, because these are 100% electric buses. Today we are really on a complete and now well-planned renewal of transport in Senegal.”
The company to which David Peltre belongs works on other major projects such as the BRT (bus rapid transit, in English) and the metro in Abidjan, in Ivory Coast, or even in Marrakech and Casablanca in Morocco.
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Go further
CETUD, the Executive Council for Sustainable Urban Transport of Dakar
Ingerop, engineering and consulting group
Find this column on the app, the website and in the international mobility magazine “Français à l’avenir.fr”