East Freetown Workers Bemoan Effect Of Transport Costs
By Abdul Rahman Bah
The eastern flank of Freetown, densely populated, neglected for decades, and chronically underserved, has become the epicenter of a transport crisis, quietly draining the life out of working families. In communities stretching from Kissy Dockyard to Wellington, residents describe a daily commute that feels like a financial assault, leaving them with almost nothing to take home at the end of the month.
The crisis is not new, but its severity has reached a breaking point. Workers earning between NLe1,200 and NLe2,500 say their salaries vanish into transport fares long before the month ends. On a typical weekday, a commuter from Wellington or Calaba Town spends between NLe25 and NLe35 per trip. Multiply that across 26 working days, and transportation alone consumes NLe650 to NLe910 each month, often more than half of a worker’s salary. For low-income employees in private security, cleaning services, tailoring, teaching and nursing, the numbers climb even higher, because many need two or three connecting rides to reach central Freetown.
At 5:30 a.m., the crowds at Shell, Kissy, and Ferry Junction already stretch around corners. Workers stand in lines that do not move, chased by the rising sun and the fear of losing their jobs. For many, lateness is punished with salary cuts, and repeated late arrivals can cost them their employment. Ironically, the same salaries they fight to protect are being swallowed by the struggle to get to work.
Among the crowd is Mariama, a cleaner, who leaves her home in Allen Town before dawn to catch a keke to Shell and then a poda-poda to the city center. Her daily transport cost is NLe32, roughly NLe800 a month. Her salary is NLe1,300. By the 18th of every month, she is broke. She borrows money just to continue going to work. By the end of her interview, tears gather in her eyes. “I work to pay for transport,” she says. “Nothing else.”
Drivers tell their own desperate story. Rising fuel prices and the unpredictable availability of fuel force keke and poda-poda operators to increase fares. Spare parts have doubled or tripled in price over the past two years. Roads in the east, especially Old Road, Bottom Mango, Portee and Hill Cut junctions, destroy shocks, brakes and tyres within months. Drivers queue at filling stations for hours just to buy a few liters. Their claim is simple: if they do not increase prices, they cannot survive.
But commuters argue that drivers raise fares too quickly and too aggressively. When fuel prices go up, even by a small amount, fares jump immediately. When fuel prices go down, fares rarely follow. In the eastern part of the city, where poverty is widespread, the cost of a single missed fare increase can mean the difference between eating and skipping dinner.
The congestion adds another layer of pain. The bottleneck at Kissy Road, caused by narrow lanes, street markets and uncontrolled parking, turns a 15-minute journey into a two-hour crawl. Traffic at Cline Town, particularly during truck offloading hours, slows the entire east-west corridor. Commuters are forced to pay more, because drivers argue that wasted time on the road must be compensated.
The government has promised reforms: expanded bus routes, regulated fares, road rehabilitation, and increased oversight of transport unions. Yet the east has seen little change. The few buses that pass through Calaba Town or Grafton are too few for the population they are meant to serve. By 6:00 a.m., most buses are already full. After 7:30 a.m., the chances of catching one are slim.
Families are now adjusting in ways that expose the depth of the crisis. Some workers sleep at relatives’ homes closer to the city during the week to cut transport costs. Others walk long distances, some from Shell to Congo Cross, some from Kissy to Brookfields. Parents choose schools based not on quality, but based on transport routes. Some children walk miles before and after school, because the family cannot afford daily fares.
Economists warn that the transportation crisis is worsening poverty faster than any social program can correct. The strain is creating a silent cycle: workers earn money to pay for movement, movement drains income, poverty deepens, stress rises, productivity drops, and the economy suffers in return.
Analysts have outlined urgent recommendations that could bring relief if implemented with seriousness. Authorities need to enforce standard fares, punish illegal fare hikes, repair the eastern corridor roads, regulate checkpoint extortion, and increase the number of government-subsidised buses targeting densely populated areas like Kissy, Wellington, and Calaba Town. Urban planners argue that the long-term solution must include developing a modern mass transit system, decentralising workplaces, and creating job hubs outside the city center to reduce travel demand.
Back at the eastern junctions, none of these promises matter yet. What matters is survival. Each morning begins with the same struggle, the same queues, the same shouting, the same exhaustion, and the same draining of salaries into a transport system that has failed the very people who depend on it. For workers in eastern Freetown, the journey to work is not a commute. It is a daily surrender of income, dignity and hope.
