Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit

Opened in 2015 as sub-Saharan Africa's first modern urban light rail, the 31.6 km, 39-station, two-line network was built by China Railway Group and financed by a roughly $475 million loan from China's Export-Import Bank, with day-to-day operation initially run jointly by Shenzhen Metro Group and the Ethiopian Railways Corporation. The line uses fixed-block signaling with track circuits and level-crossing protection engineered specifically for it, per an Addis Ababa University engineering thesis on its signaling design. Chronic spare-parts shortages, power outages and motor overloading have kept much of the original 41-train fleet out of service for years: independent assessments through mid-2026 put daily ridership at roughly 45,000-56,000, down from a 2016 peak near 113,500, with as few as about 13 of the 41 trains running even after a rehabilitation push begun in 2024 lifted the count back toward 17 by April 2026. A fuel shortage that same month temporarily pushed ridership to about 75,000 as commuters abandoned road transport.

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below — how this works · 🔎 Last verified 2026-08-02

📖 Terms in this entry: Adaptive traffic signals · Bus rapid transit (BRT) · CBTC (communications-based train control)