Algiers metro first line finally opens after 27 years of delay

Starting this summer, Algiers residents will be able to use ten stations along Line 1, 9.5 km long, which will connect the center of the capital with the city outskirts. More metro lines are to follow in the coming years.

• Line 1 opened on Friday twenty-seven years after work first began and was repeatedly delayed for lack of funding and internal conflicts. 

• Algiers is already the second African city after Cairo to get an underground rapid transport system.

• « The first metro line in Algiers has been completed and will be operational after resolution of certain aspects of security related to exploitation », Transport Minister Ammar Tou asserted on Friday, August 13.

• « Algiers metro is completed. There remains some safety aspects to be resolved before exploitation”, Ammar Tou to reporters after inspection on the construction of the extension Hai El Badr El Harrache.

• Ammar Tou has acknowledged that certain aspects of security related to exploitation of the first metro line of Algiers were completely outdated and requires revision. From an initial length of 9.5 km, Algiers metro project will serve, at ten stations, Bachdjarrah, El Magharia, Hussein Dey, Sidi M’hamed and center of Algiers. However, the minister did not a date for the launch of the first metro line.