The project of a guide to buying and operating buses in Africa was initiated by CODATU in July 2017 in partnership with the French Development Agency and SYTRAL. Based on the observed lack of long-standing effective bus acquisition projects in Africa, this project aims to learn the lessons of past failures and to propose practical solutions to African cities seeking to be part of this type of approach, in order to make it a success.
After an initial study phase from July to September 2017, whose main focus was to identify cases in 25 African cities that had carried out bus acquisition operations, a group of partners expressed their interest in collaborating as part of a work group.
Gathered together as part of a Task Force led by CODATU, the partners then agreed to join forces to put together some guidelines for setting up bus acquisition projects in Africa, aimed at transport and mobility decision-makers in Africa. The aim of this document is to provide operational solutions to local authorities undertaking this type of project in Africa, while putting them back at the centre of the global challenges in terms of mobility.
The guide provides all the elements and recommendations that these African decision-makers may need, in a well-argued, neutral way, based on documented cases. It offers additional information in the appendix*, e.g. examples of bus specifications or the CODATU-GART charter for donating refurbished rolling stock.
The guide was drafted in partnership with: AFD, Agence d’Urbanisme de Lyon (Lyon urban planning agency), ARTELIA, CEREMA, CATP, Grand Lyon, IVECO, KEOLIS, RATP, SCANIA, la Société des Transports de Lomé (Lomé transport company), SYTRAL, TRANSITEC, Île-de-France Region, SUEZ, and Raymond H. Maubois.
