The President of Senegal Macky Sall invited Monday, December 27 his compatriots to ensure the safety and the cleanliness of the regional express train (TER) of Dakar, of which he chaired the commissioning ceremony. Launched to modernize transport, the TER cost more than a billion euros. It is supposed to put an end to the monster traffic jams in the West African metropolis.
The train must connect in about twenty minutes the 36 kilometers separating Dakar from the city of Diamniadio, a section on which users usually lose hours by car.
The trains will run at a top speed of 160 km / h and will be able to transport 115,000 people per day, from 5 am to 10 pm, according to the promoters. The rotations will be carried out by fifteen trainsets of four cars each, built by the French group Alstom.
“I invite you to take ownership of the TER and ensure safety and cleanliness, Sall told his fellow citizens. Throwing metal instruments on the rails is dangerous. “” We must make it our heritage for present and future generations “, added the Head of State, who announced that a second section of the TER would take the train to Blaise-Diagne international airport.
Relieve congestion Dakar
The French Ambassador to Senegal Philippe Lalliot declared that Paris was ready to participate in this second phase of the TER, welcoming this means of transport. “An effective instrument at the service of urban mobility”.
Construction work on this train started in early 2017 and commissioning has been postponed several times. The construction of the TER and the laying of its new rails cost 780 billion CFA francs (more than 1 billion euros) financed by the State of Senegal, on own funds and thanks to loans, in particular French.
The TER is part of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE), a development program initiated by President Sall – in power since 2012 – and supposed to end by 2035. It aims to relieve congestion in Dakar, which focuses on 0, 3% of the territory the fifth of the 17 million Senegalese and almost all of the country’s economic activities. Traffic jams officially cost the city 152 million euros per year.
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