Tuck in a rut: Can Nairobi's public transport rise to Berlin's efficiency?

Public transport buses in Berlin. [Peter Theuri, Standard]

On August 3, I was scheduled to go watch the Bundesliga 2 opener between Hertha Berlin and Paderborn at The Olympic Stadium.

The Stadium - famously known as OlympiaStadion- is about 20 kilometres from where I am staying, in Ostkreuz, East of Berlin. That I would be going through a city, and knowing how congested Kenya’s capital Nairobi is, especially if thousands of people are heading the same way for a league opener, means it should have taken me some hours to get there.

But Berlin is quite the dream city when it comes to public transport.

A jog to the train station 170 metres away, a three-minute wait for the Ringbahn (train) to Westkreuz. Then a walk to the platform within Westkreuz and another short ride to OlympiaStadion. For the whole journey, it took less than 50 minutes.

Normally, I live in Kasarani, an estimated 15 kilometres from Nairobi’s city centre. On normal working days, when we do not have 50,000 people going to OlympiaStadion for a Bundesliga opener, it takes me an hour or so to get to town. My journey does not end there if I am going to the office.

A majority of European cities have huge populations but due to an extremely effective public transport system, there is little congestion and few delays.

According to data site Statista, the number of passengers on scheduled local bus, tram and rail services in Berlin in Germany has been well over 1 billion every year from 2011 to 2023. The numbers hit 1.55 billion in 2023. The lowest they did in the past ten years was 1.02 and 1.07 billion in the Covid-19 years of 2020 and 2021.

In 2018, they peaked at 1.62 billion.

Berlin, whose geographical area exceeds Nairobi but whose population of close to 4 million is less than Nairobi’s, is the epitome of functional public transport.

A modern bicycle yard in Berlin. [Peter Theuri, Standard]

In 2022, approximately 85.7 per cent of the population in Germany had good access to public transportation. Unsurprisingly, Berlin, the country’s capital, was the German federal state with the highest public transit access. 99.4 per cent of the population in Germany’s capital city was well-connected

with bus stops and train stations nearby.

You can never get stranded here.

Cynthia Muthoni, a university student in Berlin, says that in comparison to Kenya, public transport is “a lot more efficient” here.

There is the occasional delay, however, but overall, the transport works alright.

“Most of the time everything is on schedule, and so you can plan your time and know when to leave the house and when you will get there,” she says. “Google maps is pretty accurate too.”

Faith Rutendo, a journalist from Zimbabwe and who is currently working in Berlin, agrees.

“It (public transport) is extremely efficient, always on time. In Harare, we have private operators you cannot rely on. The pricing is controlled here, but back home prices go up when it is raining. Here it is very reliable,” she says.

Those who are not using the trains, trams or buses- whose tickets are affordable by day- are either cycling around or are on electric scooters. The rest walk.

The country has sleek white high-speed ICE (InterCity-Express) trains that can reach speeds of 320 km/h (200 mph) and which not only connect Germany’s cities, but also cruise into other European cities, such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Vienna and Zürich.

Within Berlin, for 49 Euros (Sh6978) you can buy the Deutschlandticket valid on S-Bahns (urban railway), U-Bahns (subway), buses and trams for a month. This is also valid within other cities in Germany and is only non-applicable for the commute between them.

There is also a 29-euro ticket valid within the A and B transport zones of Berlin.

The city has three fare zones: Sub-area A, bounded by the S-Bahn ring, and which includes the city center, sub-area B, which ends at Berlin’s city limits, and sub-area C which consists of the surrounding areas of Berlin.

If you live in Berlin, the less expensive AB ticket is sufficient. It can be used for every public mode of transport within the city.

The U-Bahn operates ten lines on a route network of 145 kilometres. It has 173 subway stations. The S-Bahn touches a ring around the four major nodes of Westkreuz, Gesundbrunnen, Ostkreuz, and Südkreuz. 

There are 22 tram lines and 5,334 kilometres (3,314 mi) of roads run through Berlin.

Nairobi is not lucky enough to be served by such expansive public transport. The most used form of public transport in the city is matatu.

According to CEIC data, Kenya Number of Registered Vehicles was reported at 2,095,088 Units in Dec 2021, an increase from the previous number of 1,987,589 Units for Dec 2020.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in 2024 showed that the country registered 195,656 new motor vehicles and motorcycles in 2023, having imported 78,127 motor vehicles in the year.

A publication on Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Health Implications for Nairobi, Kenya showed that 60 percent of the total registered vehicles in Kenya operate in Nairobi. And with earlier statistics indicating that matatus accounted for about a third of total vehicles registered in Kenya, then we can assume that Nairobi had 377, 000 registered public service vehicles in 2021.

The city is congested, with matatus often portraying a high degree of lawlessness. Kenyans who can afford it opt to use taxis or their personal cars, making the congestion worse. Berlin, however, has fewer cars than one would expect on the road. 1.47 million passenger cars were registered in 2023 in Berlin, giving the city one of the lowest numbers of cars per capita.

In Nairobi, where there are no cycle lanes, it is risky for cyclists to take to the road. Can all this be altered?

Jane Marie Muthoni, a geospatial and earth observation analyst and urban planner based in Enschede, Netherlands, says that Kenya could need a complete mindset, that policy, overhaul if public transport were to work.

“The government needs to prioritise everyone regardless of social status, so it provides infrastructure that can be afforded by everyone, including providing biking infrastructure for bikes and scooters,” she says.

This mindset change, she says, goes down to citizens as well.

“As Africans we are still behind in technology and industrialisation, and maybe in mentality. Countries in Europe have been in the stage we are in Africa (we currently hold cars to a high standard). The first world countries have experienced this and they have seen the consequences of that lifestyle ‘phase’; they are now valuing different lifestyles with a focus on health, high quality of life, and environment.”

She faults having leaders who “are not educated enough to see the value in such a lifestyle”, saying that “we cannot be having people who do not know city management or design or planning running a city.” 

In a plea to reduce congestion in the city, Senator Crystal Asige last year noted that the city’s cost of accidents, congestion, and emissions is estimated to be over Sh100 billion annually.

A commuter train system in Berlin. [Peter Theuri, Standard]

There were clear planning lapses that robbed Nairobi of better infrastructure and public transport.

Nairobi Integrated Urban Development Plan (NIUPLAN) mentions that in the 1973 Nairobi Metropolitan Growth Strategy, which expired in 2000, a wide road surrounding central business district (CBD) was proposed with bus ways to connect residential and industrial areas, and use of private cars was curtailed so that the increasing population would shift to public transport.

At the time of doing the NIUPLAN ten years ago, it was noted that a total of 129,000 parking spaces would be required for the existing buildings, resulting in a gap of 123,000 parking spaces. The gap meant that the cars, together with waiting taxis and matatu, would hinder traffic flow in major roads in the CBD.

“For this reason,” NIUPLAN proposed, “it is necessary to construct new multilevel parking and/or to develop a public transportation system instead of private cars.”

The interventions that Muthoni suggests for Nairobi’s effective public transport include fiscal and tax intervention.

“Increase taxes on vehicles, here if your house has a parking spot and you have no car you still pay for it, they also charge all car owners with carbon tax,” she says. “Prioritise NMT, which means reducing the carriage way, reducing parking spots, building wider foot paths, and creating bike lanes that are safe that prevent cars from driving on those ways. Create the infrastructure with crime prevention design principles for safety. Make these NMT infrastructures attractive and good, such as by planting trees for shade,” she says.

She also proposes a culture change, where people embrace public transport amid a clean, safe, pretty, and attractive environment.