**2. Background**

Addis Ababa, which houses close to 25% of the city dwellers, is the capital city of Ethiopia, the largest metropolis in the country, and among Africa's fastest-rising cities. It is the growth engine for Ethiopia and a major pillar in the country's vision to become a middle-income, carbon-neutral, and resilient economy by 2025 [16]. Addis Ababa light rail transit (AA-RLT) is the first light rail and rapid transit in eastern and sub-Saharan Africa. It was put into operation in 2015 by Ethiopia Railways Cooperation (ERC) which is Mandated to advance railway infrastructure and deliver commuter and cargo rail transportation services in Ethiopia [17]. It is an electrified light rail transit with 41 stations and a total length of 34.25 km of rail lines. As indicated in Figure 1 below, it has two lines, one running north-south from Menelik Square to Kality (16.9 km) serving 23 stations and the other running east-west from Ayat to Tor Hailoch 17.35 (km) with the two lines sharing a 2.7 km section of the track in the city center serving 16 stations. On both lines of the LRT, trains cannot travel beyond 80 km/h, putting their normal operational speed at 65km/h with a maximum network designed hourly flow of 15,000 passengers per hour per direction (PPHPD) [8]. Intended to mitigate and control the increasing traffic jam in Addis Ababa, whose populace has now exceeded 5 million occupants, the light rail was built by China Railway Engineering Corporation at a hooping sum close to US\$475m, and 85% of the project was financed by loans advanced from export-import (EXIM) Bank of China (https://www.railwaygazette.com/addis-ababa-light-rail-opens/41388.article (accessed on 22 January 2020).

**Figure 1.** Operational stations along the AA-RLT route map. (Source http://www.aalrt.gov.et/maps.php (accessed on 29 December 2019); Photo taken by author inside the AA-LRT train).
