Effect of US Bombing in Iraq and Syria - appeal of #IslamicState spreads

For every bomb dropped, another 100 supporters for the Caliphate.

Ethiopia: Free Transport Service for Public Servants to Commence

allAfrica.com: : "The Public Service Employees Transport Service Enterprise (PSETSE), which was established last year with the aim of providing free transportation services for government employees, announced that it is commencing a trial transportation service as of Monday with over 50 buses."

Nigeria: Kogi Inaugurates New Lokoja City Bus Service

allAfrica.com: "The Kogi State Government has inaugurated a new metropolitan transport scheme tagged Lokoja City Bus Service (LCBS) to boost transportation within the capital city-Lokoja. The government said the new Lokoja City Bus Service is a subsidised public transport scheme that is expected to have great impact on the lives of the citizens and residents of Lokoja. Commuters on the bus service would enjoy at least 50 per cent subsidy on fares within the metropolis. Kogi State Governor, Capt. Idris Wada described the event as a landmark in the history of his administration as it marked the beginning of the restructuring of the road and water transportation sectors through the Kogi State Transport Company and the recently created Ministry of Transport."

Tripoli Local Council addresses fuel crisis with free city bus service

libyaherald : "In one of its last acts, Tripoli Local Council — soon to be replaced by the recently elected Tripoli Municipal Council — has made an agreement with the National Fast Transport Company to offer a free public bus service for Tripoli residents. The service is a response  to the petrol crisis in the city which has meant that many people cannot get to work."

Nairobi signs deal with China's Foton to improve public transport

WantChinaTimes.com: "Under the MoU, Foton Motors will provide 260 buses to the county government of Nairobi to help implement the mass public transport system.
..."We require mass public transport system to ease congestion on our roads and reduce carbon emissions," the governor said."

Tourism buses to offer public transportation services in Greater Cairo within weeks - Daily News Egypt

Daily News Egypt: "State-owned Misr Tourism Company, in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism, will dispatch buses to offer public transportation services in Greater Cairo, the cabinet announced Tuesday."

Nigeria free school bus program expands, may spread

tribune : "Akinmade said the school free shuttle programme had come to stay, adding that the initiative had become so popular that  some other states in the country have come to study it as a model to enable them to implement same in their respective states."

Edo State, Nigeria. #freetransit for school children

WorldStage News | Oshiomhole announces free transport for students, condemns Chibok abductions: "Accordng to him, “today, as a mark of our appreciation on the hardship that many of our parents are encountering and the difficulties of the financial challenges that many families are experiencing, I have decided that with effect from tomorrow morning, 6:00am, any Edo Child who is in school uniform going from school or returning from school, if he wears his school uniform, whether he attends a private or public school will no longer pay any ticket for using the Comrade Bus.

“The management will be directed to ply all the routes in Benin City and once you are wearing your uniform, you will board those buses free of charge whether you are going to school or you are returning from school. This is something we are doing just to show that we care. This is one way we can deliver more subsidy in a way that cannot be abused by any middle man.”"

Zimbabwe: Reliable Public Transport System Vital

allAfrica.com : "But all the foregoing still leave everyone vulnerable to unscrupulous kombi drivers. What we need as a nation is a viable public transport system which ensures that people can move from point A to point B in a predictable way. Our roads are overcrowded; in fact they have long exceeded their carrying capacity.

Add to that, the madness of reckless kombi drivers who are forced to meet unrealistic targets by greedy vehicle owners who leave them with little time to rest.

Thousands of those kombis are not regularly serviced, don't have route permits and the drivers are often under-qualified or half drunk most of the time. That's a cocktail for disaster.

Having a reliable public transport system will reduce our people's exposure to these risky options.

The infrastructure cluster under Zim-Asset should get our city authorities and engineers thinking about the way forward. A combination of buses and trains should do the trick. This is a top priority area not just to facilitate commerce but also to save lives. It makes business and moral sense."

Privatization of transport a failure in Nigeria

New transport policy: A lesson in self-indictment: "WITH the announcement by the Federal Government, early this year, that it was putting together a framework that would form the bedrock of a new transportation policy for country, we need not look any further for the reasons for the failures of recent attempts at Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) to develop some of our public infrastructure."

Spotlight on school transport after deaths

IOL.co.za: "“I’m very concerned about the continued use of bakkies to transport the public, especially school learners. We strongly urge parents to work with us to ensure that learners are safe on the road.”

The MEC said various factors – including whether the children involved in yesterday’s crash were seated or not; whether they were protected by a “barricade”; and if the vehicle had a canopy – would have to be taken into account to determine if the driver had been reckless.

The government would continue to extend free pupil transport services to more needy communities as part of the process of providing easy access to transportation and education."

Terrorism is created by spy agencies to justify access to oil

The U.S.-Algerian security pact is about energy, not al-Qaeda - Al Arabiya News: "Professor Jeremy Keenan, a world authority on the Sahara-Sahel region from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, points to “longstanding collusion between Algeria’s secret police, the Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité [Department of Intelligence and Security, or DRS] and local terrorists.”"

Boko Haram a creation of Western oil-controlled governments, handy excuse to invade Nigeria

Behind the rise of Boko Haram - ecological disaster, oil crisis, spy games | Nafeez Ahmed | Environment | The Guardian: "What we're not being told, however, is that al-Qaeda's rapid expansion through northwest Africa has occurred under the rubric of Algerian state intelligence services - with US, French and British knowledge."

ANC Manifesto calls for accessible, reliable, and affordable public transport

Politicsweb - Slight decline in ANC majority a warning against complacency - COSATU - PARTY: "g) Providing accessible, reliable and affordable public transport."

Nigerians steal back their own oil and it is called theft.

Cheap oil has peaked. Now a mad dash for what is left. Common sense and safety are cast aside. Nigeria oil is being reclaimed by local entrepreneurs. Criminal international oil companies are losing control. No one will gain from this fight. It is time to turn away from cars and free ourselves from this madness.

Nigerian oil theft “on industrial scale”: production target “unachievable”. : Jeremy Leggett's Triple Crunch Log: "Criminal gangs are stealing anything between 100,000 b/d and 400,000 b/d from wells and pipelines in the Niger Delta, reselling the crude – worth several billion US dollars – to buyers as far afield as Latin America.
The theft – and the sabotage often associated with it – is forcing major oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Eni of Italy, Chevron of the US and Total of France, to shut down wells too.
The crime wave adds distance to the official target of lifting Nigerian oil production to 4m b/d by 2020.
Foreign industry executives have long warned that, even in normal circumstances, the objective was ambitious. Now, it appears unachievable."

First A Re Yeng bus shown to the public

The New Age Online: "Tshwane will reveal its first A Re Yeng bus tomorrow morning at a station in Hatfield.

City spokesperson Blessing Manale said: “The integrated rapid public transport network is intended to transform public transport in Tshwane through providing an affordable high-quality public transport system.”

Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa will receive the keys of the first completed A Re Yeng bus from the operating company, Tshwane Rapid Transit.

Invited guests will be treated to a maiden voyage on the 12m bus, boasting modern technology such as free Wi-Fi, air conditioning, cameras and low-floor technology."

Kenya : Nairobi must invest in public transport

Standard Digital News: "The county must invest in public transport that is efficient, secure, clean and reliable. The much talked about metro railway remains a paper project, but there is no reason why the county cannot partner with the National Youth Service, for instance, to operate fleets of buses on selected routes for a start."

Who needs to reduce energy use to stop #climatechange?

Visualising global energy inequality | Make Wealth History: "The current definition of ‘modern energy access‘, as used by the International Energy Agency, is 100 kWh per person per year. The image below, which is from the Center for Global Development, shows how far that amount of power would last us in different parts of the world. An American would use that in three days, a European in five. The average Ethiopian would use that much power in two years."

Accra city public transport in a mess?

SpyGhana.com: "The unworthiness of most vehicles that carry passengers often leads to fatal accidents, making Ghana one of the most accident-prone countries in the world.

At least 26,621 lives were lost through road accidents from January 2000 to September 2013, while about   70, 000 people were injured within the same period.

According to statistics made available by the National Road Safety Commission, 20,503 lives were lost between January 2000 and December 2010 in road accidents that left 63,384 people injured."

South Africa: Public Transport Exempted From E-Tolls

allAfrica.com: : "In a statement released today, the Presidency said: "Some bits of information that are important for consumers to know appear to have not found way into the public domain in a visible way. One is that workers travelling in buses and taxis are exempted from e-tolls.

"These modes of transport pass through the gantries free of charge. Transport services in South Africa are ably supported by the minibus taxi industry, ferrying about 60% of the population in Gauteng daily. They form an integral part of the integrated transport system value chain.""

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Kigali #publictransit no better under new arrangement

allAfrica.com: Rwanda: Public Transport - It's About Time Service Providers Are Held Accountable: "Several months down the road, the same problems that characterised the previous arrangement, such as keeping commuters waiting for long hours and overloading, still persist.

In some cases, the situation has actually worsened."

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