No cash payment, please: BRT passengers to use special toll cards

According to Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga, the commuter rail payment system will have  a card loaded with points which passengers will swipe to pay before boarding.

Additionally, passengers will be able to use mobile money payment (M-PESA) to load up their card virtually or visit a vendor at the BRT corridors’ termini.

“BRT will be cashless. There will be a card that will also integrate commuter rail payment. Methods of topping up include normal MPesa paybill or you simply go to a designated vendor,” Hinga said on Wednesday.

The BRT corridors will be launched on a pilot basis from June in the Nairobi metropolitan area, starting with the lane along Thika Road.

At the same time, passengers will pay a Ksh.150 flat rate to ride the bus plying the Kasarani-Kenyatta National Hospital route which ordinarily requires commuters to use two buses at a total cost of around Ksh.120.

“The fares we will be charging is Ksh.150 along the Kasarani-Kenyatta National Hospital line that we hope to start operating come June on a pilot basis,” said Gitau.

He added: “In the pilot, the fare will be standard. However, the fare policy for the system will be in zones which are distance-based.”

The government plans to launch six BRT corridors in Nairobi, with the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to Likoni, James Gichuru-Rironi and Bomas to Ruiru roads being top priority.

The Ngong Road to Juja, Mama Lucy to T-Mall and Balozi to Imara roads are also among the routes the corridors shall be rolled out eventually.

The latest comes just a week after the government announced that petrol and diesel buses will not be allowed in the BRT project in an effort to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

PS Hinga stated that only electric and select hybrid vehicles which use both electric and fossil fuel, and those that use biofuels like hydrogen and biogas, will be allowed in the corridors.