Towards reforming public bus service in greater Cairo metropolitan area

Abstract

This research manifests the importance of high quality public transport for individuals, communities and the nation as a whole and demonstrates the added value of developing public bus service specifically. Japan International Cooperation Agency’s quality standards are used as a conceptual frame of reference to benchmark the public buses service in the Greater Cairo Metropolitan Area. This study relies upon primary qualitative research and secondary data to create background and analysis of the problems within the current system of deficient traffic and public bus service in the Greater Cairo Metropolitan Area. Data findings of semi-structured interviews supplemented by relevant journal articles and Central Agency for Public Mobilization And Statistics report 2013/2014 exhibited the weak points in management and sustainability structures of the public bus service delivery. Thus, a set of recommendations are proposed pertaining to enhancing governance, planning, service delivery and sustainability with the aim of improving the quality of public bus service in Greater Cairo. The recommendations suggest that the empowerment of the Greater Cairo Transport Regulatory Authority as well as the reform of Cairo Transport Authority to follows a sustainable business model, using concession contracts of the London Bus system for contracting service providers and Public Private Partnership to manage its own bus fleet.