Addis Ababa's smart-city story is really a caution about maintenance. Africa's first modern light rail opened in 2015 as a showcase of Chinese-financed infrastructure, with real signalling and crossing-protection engineering built in — but a decade of spare-parts shortages and power cuts has left barely a third of its trains running, a reminder that sophistication only matters if a city can keep the lights on to run it.

All 1 project in Addis Ababa

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Compare with other cities

• 🇳🇬 Lagos: Lagos Blue Line Rail Two China-built African rail lines underperform: Addis fell from a 113k ridership peak; Lagos, designed for 400k+, carries about 15k daily.
• 🇮🇳 Bengaluru: Namma Metro Yellow Line: A Finished Line Waiting for Its Trains Both rail lines were finished, then stalled: Addis lost spare parts for years; Bangalore sat trainless after a 2020 CRRC contract collapse.