Story highlights Sub-Saharan Africa sees its first metro system open in Addis Ababa

The $475 million project is a collaboration between Ethiopia and China

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (CNN) In Addis Ababa, a city of over 4 million people, the more traditional way of getting around has been in mini vans -- a cross between a bus and a taxi, that picks people up and drops them wherever they want to go.

But now, a newly opened urban metro service is set to transform the way people in Ethiopia's capital get to work.

The $475 million Light Rail Project is a joint venture between Ethiopia and China and the first of its kind for the city and sub-Saharan Africa..

"There has been a lot of positive economic development in the last 20 years," Dr Getachew Betru, CEO of Ethiopian Railways Corporation, told CNN.

At the moment that means taking 60,000 people who live in the suburbs and bringing them towards the center to work: "You would not imagine to have that in a sub-Saharan city".

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