Ghana’s Transport System Is In Crisis And We Have Normalized It

The Daily Struggle

Every morning and evening in the major cities of Ghana, especially Accra and Kumasi, the same situation repeats itself. People stand by the roadside, long before work begins, watching out for a bus that might never come and hoping for any vehicle to stop. Rickety vehicles for that matter. In fact, who cares when you’re already running late for work and wasting productive time in a crowded queue, time that could have been spent preparing for the day’s activities or getting home earlier to wind down and prepare for the next day. This isn’t normal, it’s a crisis.

These vehicles, widely known as “trotro” or “troski,” are uncomfortable and usually unsafe for commuting, yet people still fight their fellow citizens and squeeze to get into them. After all, do you really have a choice?

We have to think long-term

Sadly, we have normalized this situation. Citizens complain, media houses report on it, transport operators are contacted, the sector ministry is reached out to and as usual, they assure us of providing “solutions”. RINSE, REPEAT! I see these “solutions” as lazy approaches to solve the problem long-term. They are most of the time just knee-jerk reactions and I don’t even see them fit to be called short-term solutions. We need to be INTENTIONAL.

Truth be told, this is not sustainable for any serious nation, but in Ghana, we just complain, adjust and move on. We have accepted and normalized such a bad situation for our transport system. No serious or “developing” nation should tolerate this situation. We are in a crisis and must tackle this head-on.

Why Our Transport System Fails?

Major cities like Accra and Kumasi have grown rapidly, yet we are still using the same roads and “trotros” for a public transport system that is broken. This doesn’t reflect well on a nation, especially when public transport should be the backbone of every country.

In Ghana, it’s been left mainly in the hands of the private sector and trotros dominate. Hold on, this is not because “trotros” are efficient, safe or comfortable, but because there are few alternatives. Many are old, poorly maintained, uncomfortable and unsafe, yet millions of Ghanaians depend on them daily. This whole public transport crisis affects productivity while compromising the safety of citizens because the vehicles used are not even “roadworthy.”

They are not well-regulated, have no scheduled routes or dedicated lanes. The sad part is that transportation problems are treated as surface-level issues while core problems remain unaddressed.

We rely on roads for the movement of people, goods, fuel and food. Jobs remain concentrated even as the population spreads outward, resulting in longer commutes, more trotros and more congestion, especially during the rush hours. Yet we fail to plan and integrate our transport system with urban growth.

“Kufuor buses,” “Aayalolo buses” were supposed to make transport better but past leaders have failed to keep them running. The political class just point fingers at each other while citizens are the ones suffering; long queues, fewer buses and more frustration

Every few years, we see buses being unveiled, cameras all over and speeches about change. Relief is promised but soon after, most of these buses disappear from the roads. They break down, get parked, are abandoned, left to rot and stripped of their parts. These are buses that were meant to help commuters. This is simply bad planning. No maintenance. No accountability.

We keep buying buses, don’t maintain them and jubilate over new ones while letting the others rot. The transport ministry has announced over the past weeks that hundreds of buses are in transit from Egypt. Have we made any conscious efforts to right the previous wrongs or are we just waiting for the cycle to repeat? We need to be INTENTIONAL.

Learning from Our Neighbors (Kenya & Rwanda)

It is not impossible to solve this public transport crisis but we must be INTENTIONAL. Nations closer to home, like Kenya and Rwanda, have improved and structured their public transport by enforcing standards and making transportation a national priority. This is exactly what a developing nation must do.

In Kenya, they formalized their version of Trotros, called “matatus,” into registered cooperatives, enforced licensed routes and terminals, rolled out Bus Rapid Transit corridors in Nairobi, invested in intercity rail to shift traffic off roads and strengthened traffic regulations through digital systems.

Rwanda focused on strict regulation and execution by building a fully organized city bus system with fixed routes, schedules, cashless payments, centralized fleet management and consistent enforcement. Unsafe vehicles were phased out, commuter data was used for planning and transport decisions were directly integrated with urban development.

The blueprint exists. We need to be INTENTIONAL. There’s no single fix for this crisis, but I humbly believe that bold steps like these can transform public transport in Ghana over the long term.

BOLD STEPS WE MUST TAKE AS A NATION

- Develop a proper and effective railway system

Trains moving intercity and intracity would take pressure off the roads, make travel safer, and make it easier for people to move around.

- Revamp our Metro Mass Transit system

We must seriously change the structure of the Metro Mass Transit; it needs an open-heart surgery to curb the issues over the years; from the implementation of the operations to the maintenance of the buses. At the bare minimum, the buses procured should be big, reliable, high-capacity, integrated with digital technology, have clear schedules and run on dedicated routes and they must be well–maintained.

- Planning with data.

We must study the traffic patterns and how commuters move. This traffic data should be used to schedule routes for buses and trains.

What’s the future of Trotros?

The current operations of Trotros are simply not sustainable but it is not just about phasing out Trotros overnight. Currently, they are the backbone of over 90% of our intercity commuting. In the short to medium term, we must formalize the sector and attach high standards to it. We must organize the operators and integrate them into properly registered bodies, map out dedicated routes and terminals, enforce vehicle standards, hold fleet owners accountable, ensure driver discipline and upgrade of the vehicles. They must have clear schedules and incorporate cashless fares.

The government must also have a significant share of commercial vehicles on our roads because public transport can’t be highly concentrated in the hands of the private sector. This would allow easier management of the fleet, enforcement of safety and quality standards and the phasing out of older, unsafe vehicles.

This would transform Trotros into a safer, structured system while long-term solutions (proper full functioning of the Metro Mass Transit and an effective railway system to shift traffic from the roads) are being developed.

Seeing people waiting by the roadside every day, going to and from work, shows just how broken our transport system is. It’s time we stop treating this crisis as normal and get serious about long-term solutions. We must be INTENTIONAL as a nation!!!