In September 2015 a new two-line light rail system was oepned in Addis Ababa. The system is built by a Chinese consortium. The system is operated by the new Ethiopian Railways Corporation, that will also operate the new heavy rail syste in the country.
The two routes share a part of the elevated track in the city center. Line 1 (East-West route) is 17.35 km long, Line 2 (North-South) is 16.9 km long, a stretch of 2.7 km is used by both lines. Line 2 has one underground station (terminus Memilik Squar), nine stations are on elevated track (five shared by line 1 and 2, one only for line 1 and three onlyt for line 2) and the remaining stretches are built on a separate right of way in the centre of main roads. Stations are modern and provide shelter. There are always policmen guarding the platforms, though there are no platform barriers and ticket control was (in December 2015) haphazard. Tickets are normal paper tickets of 2, 4, 6 or 8 Birr (around US$ 0.10-0.40), depending on the number of stations traveled. Tickets are sold outside the stations in shelters, some of which are still temporary (the one at Kality was housed in a container). In Leghar one has to cross an eight lane busy highway to purchase a ticket.... Escalators are installed at the elevated stations but were not yet functional.
The vehicles are modern three-section low-floor light rail trains of the "Combino" type that run as single cars or in coupled sets. Line 1 vehicles are white and green, line 2 vehicles white and blue. They have plastic seets, a public address system, air-conditioning, monitors where stations are displayed and a documentary on the system and the Chinese construction of the railways is shown.