Adapting Urban Light-Rail Transport to the African Context: A Process Conducted by Transport Authorities and Chinese Rail Corporations in Addis-Ababa, Abuja, and Lagos

Taslim Alade,Jurian Edelenbos,Alberto Gianoli

doi:10.3390/urbansci3040109

Abstract

A contextual approach to Light-Rail Transport (LRT) needs to be tailored towards specific contexts, in terms of situations or contingencies, such as socio-economic and environmental factors. This research intends to discuss the societal benefits comprised of well-informed contextual factors for policymakers and urban transport authorities, to enable them to be able to formulate objective policies for a city’s socio-economic development. The aim of this article is to analyze the contextual factors in three cities which are responsible for the contextualization of infrastructural innovations of urban light-rail transport from China. The methodology that has been used is a qualitative method using multiple case studies, which includes a pilot and semi-structured interview. The analysis compares the similarities and differences within Nigeria, and between Nigeria and Ethiopia. The most perceptible contextual factors which influence infrastructural innovations in Nigeria include an electric energy supply, modernization of LRT and their stations, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), and seamless integration of LRT with other transport modes. The most conspicuous factors in Ethiopia are emergency ticket shops, seamless integration of LRT with other transport modes, and Non-Motorized Transport (NMT). Nigeria and Ethiopia both share the seamless integration of LRT with other transport modes. Therefore, academically analyzing contextual factors helps to unravel the poly-contextualization and context-specific decision-making processes in LRT implementation.

Highlights

Research has shown that a contextual approach is required in the implementation processes for Light-Rail Transport (LRT)
This article aims to answer the research question: What are the factors influencing the contextualization of infrastructural innovations in an urban Light-Rail Transport, from a Chinese context to Addis-Ababa, Abuja, and Lagos city contexts? The significance of this study can be further visualized as a case study research which incorporates practical examples of innovation management, making it possible to comprehend how and reveal the reasons why it should be done in practice in a certain way
Nigeria: These two cities in Nigeria both went through contextualization as a form of partial to complete modifications to suit the city contexts required

Summary

Introduction

Research has shown that a contextual approach is required in the implementation processes for Light-Rail Transport (LRT). This is based on contextual factors which contend with the new innovations in LRT [1]. This method requires a tailor-made process towards its specific context, in terms of particular situations or contingencies, such as the organizational structure of the various participating firms [2], socio-economic and environmental factors, culture, procedure differences, travel demand gaps, city governance, and the technical capability gap [3,4,5].

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