World Bank OKs $141-M Cebu transport project

WASHINGTON – The World Bank approved yesterday a $141-million financing package for Cebu’s Bus Rapid Transit (Cebu BRT) project aimed at providing the city’s residents with a safer and climate-friendly transport system.

The package, consisting of loans of $116 million from the WB and $25 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), will help finance the construction of a 23-kilometer BRT system along a major transport corridor in Cebu City.

The Philippine government will provide counterpart financing amounting to $87.5 million, the WB said in a statement.

The corridor spans from Bulacao to Talamban and will include transit ways, stations, terminals, a depot and other facilities. 

Expected to carry 330,000 passengers daily, the new BRT system will improve the mobility of Cebu residents while reducing pollution and increasing travel safety.

Like trains, BRT runs on its own dedicated lanes, carrying large numbers of travelers faster, safer and more reliably. Unlike trains that run on rails, BRT uses buses, making the system simpler and cheaper to construct, operate, and maintain. 

The project will also involve the installation of a state-of-the-art computerized traffic management system in the entire city to ensure a smoother overall traffic flow and provide other improvements to integrate the BRT with other modes of transport.

Pioneered by the Brazilians in Curitiba in 1974, BRT systems are growing in popularity throughout the world for their efficiency and affordability. From Bogotá to Boston, Cleveland to Curitiba, Hartford to Honolulu, Las Vegas to Los Angeles, Oakland to Ottawa, Pittsburgh to Porto Alegre, São Paulo to Sydney, and Ahmedabad to Jakarta, over 150 cities operate or are developing BRT.  

“BRT is an integrated system of facilities, equipment, services, and amenities that collectively provides high-quality, high-performance rapid transit. It is capable of producing a high level of performance and quality of service comparable to or even better than a much costlier surface tram or light rail transit system. Part of the reason for BRT’s cost-effectiveness is that it can be built quickly using local labor and materials,” said Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya. 

The project’s affordability, both in terms of initial capital and ongoing operations and maintenance spending, is particularly important in a rapidly growing growth center like Metro Cebu, Abaya said.

“We Cebuanos are proud to have the first BRT in the country, a system that has proven to be effective in providing safer, faster, and more comfortable mode of transport to millions of commuters in many cities in both developing and developed countries,” said Cebu Mayor Michael Rama.