Although different as far as the morphology, structure of their transportation market and stage of development of their transit systems are concerned, both of these urban communities are confronted with common sets of problems regarding the expansion and organisation of mobility.

This gave rise to an initiative referred to as the North-South-South Institutional Support Project taken by the Île-de-France Region with the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, designed to facilitate experience interchange and analytical thinking on the basic themes of expanding and improving the urban transport offer.

Workshop in Hanoi

The first meeting took place in Hanoi from September 13 to 18, 2010 in the presence of a delegation from Madagascar led by the executive secretary of the Antananarivo Urban Community, Olga Rasamimanana. She was accompanied by officials in charge of the regulation and operation of urban public transit, alongside IMV’s director in Antananarivo and two IMV mission officers. Mr. Raymond Maubois, transport expert for the project, acted as moderator for the exchanges and drew up recommendations regarding what the two South communities would put into operation.

The seminar had as its overarching theme the key functions of an urban transit authority:

-Development and management of the service provision.

-Integration and quality of service.

-Rate structure, ticketing and funding the transport service.

-Relationship with transport stakeholders and infrastructure managers.

A number of major issues in the development of transport in Hanoi were also identified:

-Recent extension of the city’s administrative area.

-The size of projects with a structuring dimension (subway lines, BRT).

-The time line for such projects (very short term) and role of package contract manager devolving upon the urban transit authority.

-Adapting the duties, realm of jurisdiction and potential of TRAMOC.

The recommendations focused particularly on the establishment of an urban transit authority under the aegis of the Hanoi People’s Committee to include enlargement of the TRAMOC organisational chart, rate structure and ticketing, skill mix and tools, relationship with stakeholders, funding resources and ownership of the property.

The Malagasy delegation also toured a number of pilot projects handled IMV Hanoi: the Long Bien and Cau Giay bus interchanges, the Thuy Khue bus maintenance depot as well as the My Dinh bus terminal.

Workshop in Antananarivo

The second workshop took place from February 9 to 14, 2011.

The Vietnamese delegation was led by the deputy director of the Urban Transport Department, Mr. Tran Danh Loi. Other members included the director of TRAMOC, an urban transport sector officer from the transport department, the deputy director of the Hanoi Department of International Relations, the director of IMV Hanoi and an administrative assistant-interpreter from IMV.

The meetings took place at the Antananarivo IMV office in the presence of senior management staff from the urban community: executive secretary, director of urban planning and heritage, official from the transit organisation and representatives of private transit cooperatives, among others.

Much like the city of Hanoi ten years ago, Antananarivo has moved into a process designed to rapidly and sustainably upgrade the performance and image of its public transit system.

Its first area of focus is improving its current urban transit provision. This is covered in the Urban Mobility Improvement Programme that began in 2008. A first concrete application under this programme is Pilot Line 119, inaugurated in February 2011 with engineering input and funding from the Île-de-France Region.

But Antananarivo also needs to study out, engineer and bring to fruition the big “transport and mobility” projects it needs in a sprawling city with a population figure reaching 3 million: urban rail lines, high capacity bus transit, networking through the setting up interchanges and transfer points, integrated systems (fare collection, automated ticketing, information booths, etc.).

In Hanoi, TRAMOC successfully coordinated the development and integration of the bus network. In Antananarivo, the transit authority’s duties are currently shared between the Urban Community of Antananarivo and the Land Transport Agency. The capital of Madagascar is seeking schemes and alternatives for the transit authority that will be tasked with coordinating the urban and suburban rail lines and preparing the integration of structuring projects, notably the inner city train project.

Visit in the future rolling stock  maintenance centre