Freetown
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr Mayor of FreetownFreetown, working in partnership with the C40 Cities Finance Facility, will develop its first cable car project, with four stations, a total length of 3.6km, and the capacity to serve 6,000 people per hour in both directions. This will transform the public transport sector in Freetown, allowing under-served hillside communities access to the central business district through quick, safe, and inexpensive public transport.
Freetown, working in partnership with the C40 Cities Finance Facility, will develop its first cable car project, with four stations, a total length of 3.6km, and the capacity to serve 6,000 people per hour in both directions. This will transform the public transport sector in Freetown, allowing under-served hillside communities access to the central business district through quick, safe, and inexpensive public transport.
- Simon Johnson Senior Project Advisor
- Location Freetown
- Population 1.2 Million
- Project Job Creation 70 long-term jobs in operations 200 short-term jobs during construction
Freetown’s public transport system is currently largely informal and unregulated, with 80% of daily commuters relying on informal public transport. These informal public transport providers, such as mini-buses, taxis, and motorcycles, add to Freetown’s chronic traffic congestion, with average traffic speeds at peak times around only 16km/h. This current system is unable to meet demand, and many communities, for example informal settlements on coastal areas and hillsides, have poor access to transport, and are therefore isolated from economic centres and social service providers.
This project seeks to offer an innovative solution to Freetown’s transport problem. This cable car will offer zero-carbon transit, connecting the eastern part of the city to the central business district, with stations located in informal hillside communities, a main market, and interchanges to buses and ferry terminals. This eastern part of the city is the most congested, and houses many low-income communities in informal settlements. But the cable car will help improve members of these communities’ standard of living, by providing quick, cheap, and safe access to jobs and public services. This project will not only allow greater and easier access to employment, but it will create jobs too – 2,200 short-term jobs during construction, and 70 long-term jobs in operations.
The Freetown Cable Car, as an integrated transport solution has the potential for significant transformational change in the city. Not only will the Cable Car provide a more efficient, reliable and safer mode of transport for the city’s residents. It will help to reduce the carbon emissions from the current modes of transport and thereby improve air quality. The Cable Car will also create opportunity for economic regeneration in the Central Business District and in the areas around the station sites which are currently in decline due to the congestion and poor transport services. The city council aims to work with the various government agencies to promote transit-oriented development around the Cable Car station sites to optimise the land use benefits of this mass transit solution.
By investing in public transport, Freetown will help improve the health of its citizens. The transport sector has a significant impact on air quality in Freetown, accounting for 31% of total municipal greenhouse gas emissions. Traffic is the largest contributor to small particular matter (PM2.5) pollution in the city, which drives up the risk from serious health conditions such as premature birth, asthma, cancer, and lung and heart conditions. By reducing traffic, this cable car will help make Freetown’s air cleaner and its residents healthier.
Building the cable car will have minimal disruption to transit systems, and requires very little land acquisition and regulatory requirements. After the pilot, Freetown will consider a further three routes, allowing the city to become a leader in innovative, green, and inclusive transport solutions in West Africa.