Dakar Dem Dikk: line 7 of all anxieties

Dakar Dem Dikk is a means of mass transport which, for many years, with its numerous buses, has linked the peripheral districts to the capital. On line number 7, complaints and jostling occur on a daily basis.

Line 7 serves Ouakam and the city center. Very popular because it is the only one to provide this route, it is full of frustrated users when they pile up there. The bus, whose stop is located at the assembly city of Ouakam, is the starting point of a long series of grievances.

It’s a Wednesday. At 9 a.m., users are already flocking to the terminus. Queues form as buses parked at this terminus wait for their departure time. “Ku mujj ci rang bi?” (Who is last in line?)”, is the first essential question to ask, after the salamecs (Editor’s note: greetings in Wolof).

Many users, sitting on the waiting benches, are getting impatient. One of them already fears a crowded bus due to prolonged waiting times. A student at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (UCAD), Fatou Niang displays her displeasure with the management of line 7.

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“Actually, it’s overcrowded and people are crowded together. Sometimes there are even thieves who enter the buses to take our phones or something else, petty theft,” she explains sadly, readjusting the bag on her back and mechanically readjusting the veil on her head.

Fatou Niang is not content to just denounce. She suggests a solution to remedy the situation. “What is preferable is that if the bus is already full, the driver leaves directly on his route. Without waiting for your departure time. Then another one comes to take the remaining users, or they have to increase the number of buses,” she suggests.

On line 7, the grievances overlap and vary. While some denounce the overload, others criticize the lack of change among certain recipients, which often constitutes a source of tension between users and Dakar Dem Dikk staff. And this question, Mamadou Ndoye still cannot understand it. His main disagreement with the crew is at this level.

“In the morning, instead of helping customers, they don’t do it. They ask them to go get some change. If you even have a 1,000 franc note, the guy tells you to get off the bus,” fumes Mr. Ndoye, who cannot tolerate this situation. So much so that he does not fail to recount an incident that occurred on this line.

“One day, I had a problem with a receiver because near Mermoz, he stopped the vehicle in the morning and made us waste a lot of time going to see a gendarme. When the gendarme came, I explained the situation to him. He then asked the conductor to take the bus again and take the customers to their destination,” says Mr. Ndoye, finishing with pride: “That’s normal. »

The procession of the Republic

Faced with the growing dissatisfaction of users, the reaction of the staff was not long in coming. On the side of the receivers and line regulators, the reality is quite different from that imagined.

Aliou Sy (not his real name) is a station manager at the Ouakam terminus. In his office, behind his glasses, he looks deep into his papers and scrutinizes every detail.

From his clarifications, it appears that “line 7 is one of the most served lines with 14 buses, and despite all this, demand remains higher compared to the number of buses in circulation. We do our best to regulate departures, but the large crowds sometimes exceed our capacities on the ground.”

As for the long waiting times, the station manager at the Ouakam terminus says that they are doing their best to regulate departures. However, Aliou Sy would like to point out that “we do not have a dedicated lane like the BRT. Sometimes, traffic jams work against us, the buses arrive late, which can sometimes explain the overloads.”

On the front line facing these countless complaints, Jean Dasilva (not his real name), receiver on line 7, also provides his details.

“It is the passenger themselves who must provide their change before boarding. Normally we shouldn’t even accept 500 notes, but we do it just to avoid discord.”

As for security issues, Jean says they do everything possible to protect users from pickpockets as soon as they notice suspicious behavior.

Fatou NGOM (Intern)