Mass services in large cities of North Africa, traditionally provided by the public sector, have not succeeded in reaching desired levels of service, in terms of availability, waiting times, on-vehicle travel times and comfort. The enterprises themselves have aged assets and large staffs, often ill-trained for the tasks at hand; their finances are precarious and perspectives dim. This paper draws on the experiences from Casablanca, Algiers and Tunis, defining a common framework to analyze factors contributing to the above situation, and approaches tried to improve mass transport services. On the problem side, the paper will focus on: (1) rigidities of public sector operation; (2) fare policies based on indiscriminate subsidies; (3) failure to discipline the use of private cars in cities; (4) biases against private, especially paratransit operations; and (5) the governing system which maintains a gap between desires for good-quality, affordable urban transport and public funds available to this end. On the prospects side, a reformed public sector is expected to stay dominant in Tunis, bolstered by the new light-rail system on a partially- exclusive right-of-way, and aided by an advanced traffic and parking management system. A strong private sector operation has emerged in Casablanca, and the public sector faces an uncertain future. In Algiers, reforms are under way to restructure the public bus company and introduce private operations, but major hopes are still pinned on a proposed metro system.
Abstract