Transport in Samoa – A brief history!

Transport in Samoa – A brief history!

Hi guys, today we will take a break from Australian content and head across the South Pacific Ocean to the island nation of Samoa, or as Australian people like to call ‘samowah’. If you people are not masagi with this country, because let’s face it, most westerners are not, here is a brief description.

It is located 1000 kilometres west of Fiji, 800 kilometres north of Tonga and is next to its neighbour American Samoa. It is a small island country which It is made up of 9 islands and 4   of them are inhabited. First are the 2 big islands Savai’i and Upolu and 2 little ones are Manono and Apolima.

The islands were created from volcanic activity and also sits on the pacific ring of fire, a large tectonic belt containing over 900 volcanoes and 90% of the worlds earthquakes. It was founded by the group of Austronesian people 3500 years ago, which a group of archaeologists

In New Caledonia after mishearing a word in the local Haveke language, referred to as ‘Lapita’ people Storytelling is still an important part of Fa’a Samoa or the Samoan way, according to   oral history and legend, the first Tui Manu’a, or ruler, descended from the supreme god of Tagaloa.

Now Samoa is actually a group of islands which also include Manu’a and Tutuila. The island groups are considered seperate nations because they have different colonial histories. In the 1700s, two people from Europe came and first explored Samoa as settlers. One of them was Jacob Roggeveen, a dutch explorer who was the first European explorer arriving in 1722.

The other was Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a french admiral and explorer who nicknamed them ‘navigator islands’ in 1768. In the 1800s, British missionaries came to build a colony and to spread their religion christianity to the islands. Samoa officially adopted christianity in 1830s and as a result,  

Some christian beliefs have melded in with Samoan beliefs. It became a hotbed for American trading and whaling vessels, which somewhat contributed to the economic development of Samoa. In the 1870s, the United States built a naval base for military protection and built a coaling station for the pacific squadron. The  island of Upolu was occupied by Germans,

Who took interest in Copra and Cocoa bean processing. There were ongoing tensions not just with Samoan people,   but between three colonial powers; UK, USA and Germany. This was followed by a series of civil wars between the 1880s and 1890s, which also involved warships.

In once case, the Americans came to Upolu in warships and fired upon the bay of Apia. In 1904, the two islands of Manu’a and Tutuila became a territory of the United States and was named American Samoa. The islands of Upolu and Savai’i became a german colony and were named Western Samoa.

The German colonial powers were handed over to New Zealand in 1914. Western Samoa was the first nation   in the Pacific to declare independence in 1962 and was renamed to just Samoa in 1997. So now you know a bit of history, let’s talk about the island. I am Samoan on my father’s side,  

And I lived there for 2 years during my teens, and enjoyed the culture, food, diverse range of   tropical fauna, and beautiful beaches. Samoa has a population of about 205,557 people,   about the same population as Hobart. The capital city of Apia is one of the  

Only urbanised areas in Samoa home to 35,974 people, about the same population as Preston,   a suburb in Melbourne. However there is one feature that usually stands out and that is   the many transport modes in Samoa, from buses, boats, roads and cruise ships,

I am going to give a brief history of each transport mode in Samoa, what they serve and its future. Before we talk about the present transport modes we must go back in time to 3000 years ago. Before the age of trains and buses, many Samoans and other Polynesian people in general voyaged the  

Pacific ocean in outrigger sailboats or Va’a. They navigated without instruments, solely relying on   the sky, wind, sea, sun, moon and nature as the GPS. They looked and analysed currents,   ocean swells, cloud patterns, bird migratory routes and even memorised positions of the stars in space. This later became referred to as Polynesian Navigation or Way-finding.

They reached many different islands in the pacific ocean and have travelled thousands of kilometres,   they even managed reach Hawai’i and Rapa Nui. Most of their travelling took place inside an   area known as the Polynesian Triangle, a shape to describe the areas of Polynesia.

The vertex in the north is Hawai’i, the vertex on the west is Aotearoa and the vertex on the east is Rapa Nui. Most of the Polynesian history was not written down on paper, but was passed down orally, from generation to generation, however some of it was lost during colonial times.

That started to change later, when a couple of things such as folklore, simple oral stories and documentation from some European explorers were found. There has been a renewed interest in Polynesian Navigation in the 21st century. In 1985, a 22 metre boat called Hawaikinui was built. It  was constructed with Totara trees from Aotearoa

And the boat travelled from Tahiti to NZ using traditional Polynesian navigation techniques. In 1975, a large voyaging canoe called the Hōkūleʻa was built, it is well known for it’s 1976 voyage from Hawai’i to Tahiti and has set sail on many voyages across

The Pacific ocean, with the most recent voyage from Rapa Nui to O’ahu island in Hawai’i in 2017. There are many videos highlighting the history of navigation but here   is a brief explanation in case you are lost in the pacific ocean.

If we are familiar with the sun, the sun would often rise in the east and set in the west. The sun might not be completely east or west,   it may be a couple of metres away from the actual direction, as the earth wobbles overtime.

However, there are times when it is overcast and foggy, luckily the moon (if it is on the   horizon line) can be a bearing marker and can give you an overview of the wave patterns. During the nighttime, if the sky was clear, people would navigate using the stars.

They would memorise the positions of each individual star and determine which direction they were   travelling based on specific stars rising and shining on the horizon on one side and   setting on the other side. They memorised about 150 stars in the sky. However as

Somebody who has lived in an urban area with light pollution, you would need to look at the night sky a lot to memorise the star map. Star patterns can also change every 6 months. In the northern hemisphere, if you notice a bright yellow star and a

Bunch of stars rotating around that star, that is Polaris or the north star. Earth Earth always rotates on the stars axis, so this star somewhat indicates the north axis. In the southern hemisphere, Australians are quite familiar with the Crux, or the southern cross. To figure  out where the south axis is,

Draw a line between the stars far apart from each-other, draw it by 4 times and a half and draw a line downwards to the horizon. That line in the horizon is the south axis. Wave patterns and swells were also indicators of direction and land,  

As islands and atolls can have impact on waves and currents. In sunrise and sunset,   you may be able to get a glimpse of the wave patterns. In terms of direction, they would often   flow north-east or south-east. At night time, sailors would keep the boat going parallel to the swell.

The boat rocking to the waves was also an indicator too. Be careful, sometimes swell and   currents can vary and storms and cyclones can interrupt patterns. If all else fails, stop sailing for 2 hours or until sunrise. If the swells and currents stop, start sailing again.

Clouds are usually an indicator of land ahead. If you see a large cloud, with a bit of green shading underneath, there is an atoll up ahead. If you see a huge cloud that extends verrrrrry high up, there is a mountainous island up ahead.

I don’t want to explain this in too much detail because I like to talk about transport in the present time. I also heard people discuss that Polynesian navigation techniques are the same as Micronesian navigation techniques. In Hawai’i, most of the navigation techniques were lost to colonisation. A Micronesian navigator Pius “Mau” Piailug was taught

Micronesian navigation by his grandfather. So he introduced the Micronesian navigation concept to Hawai’i. Okay, lets fast forward thousands of years later. So in the 19th century in German occupied Upolu, a harbour was built in the settlement of Apia in 1850s. Before that, there were only 304 people living there. Ships containing European and American settlers came,

Which were transport to, them (the english settlers). On the islands, there were horses and little carts transporting people, referred to as ‘horse and buggy’. They were used for transporting goods and some were even taxis. Locals also used little canoes or Paopao to get around mangroves and lakes.

There is not really that much information of Samoa’s transport in the 19th century   as the english speaking internet barely collects information on Pacific islanders. After the civil wars and after New Zealand gained colonial power over Samoa in 1914, after a series of rough events including 1918 influenza epidemic,

Not many infrastructure projects were made. It wasn’t until 1935 when New Zealand’s first labour government   came into power. They built paved roads and asphalt roads across the island for cars. In 1942, NZ took away land from the people of Satuimalufilufi village for defence purposes

In World war 2. Eventually the Battalions, a US navy group, constructed an airstrip in its place. There was a huge runway extending 1.8 kilometres long to accommodate 57   fighter aircraft and two hangers and support buildings were built and was completed in 1943.

After world war 2, the airstrip became used less often. It was upgraded several times in   1957 and in 1972, so that bigger planes can use them, especially the Boeing 737 and was known as Faleolo International Airport. All of a sudden, tourists from other countries can

Quickly take a plane to Samoa and people can travel from Aotearoa and other islands faster, if they had money of course. Over time, it kept upgrading itself, in 1984 and in 2000. When I came to stay in Samoa for 2 years in 2017, it was being upgraded once again,

Building modern looking arch architecture made to resemble a Fale, or a traditional house in Samoa. During the airport’s construction, the land was not given back and the villagers of   Satuimalufilufi were very much alive still. They were not happy and they needed to have their land  

Given back. This has been happening since World War 2 and the situation worsened after Samoa declared independence in 1962, with protests, riots and legal action. In one case in 1985, some people were arrested for ‘trespassing’ on their own village land. In 1988, other villagers reportedly attacked police and cattle for dispute over ownership.

This village fighting for their land to be returned has been happening for   about 50 years. Eventually in 2018, the Samoan government resolved the dispute… …by bulldozing a couple of fales and forcing villagers out once again, so that yet another extension of the runway can be built. SIGH

Despite the displacement of villagers off their land, it did at least make travelling more convenient and easier, at least in terms of speed and service. Now we talked a bit about the early origins of establishing transport, let’s look at each of the transport types that are established in Samoa.

Most of the nation rely on Road  vehicles for transport. As of 2024, there are about 31000 vehicles in Samoa. Having used to be a german colony, most people drove on the right side of the road, just like the United States. Road vehicles were imported from  

Countries like the United States and had their steering wheels on the left side. Despite rule from New Zealand and declaring independence, Samoa had vehicles   driving on the right side throughout the 20th century, but then a serious issue arose. As more modern vehicles were being manufactured,

They were becoming even more expensive to import from the United States as it   was really far away. It was brought up in the 1970s and nothing was done that much about it. It wasn’t until 2007, where the prime minister Tuilaepa made an announcement. He proposed to  

Make vehicles drive on the left side of the road as a way to outsource cheaper vehicles from Aotearoa and Australia as these countries were much closer to Samoa. This was met with controversy as locals claimed it would make the roads more dangerous. In 2008, 18000 people rallied and protested against the change and even vandalised newly built

‘keep left’ roadsigns. The automobile industries were also skeptical of the   change as there were 18000 vehicles in Samoa; 14000 had their steering wheels   on the right side and the government refused to meet the cost of conversion,   but admitted when the change happens, vehicle prices would go down overnight.

In response to this, the government widened roads, build speed humps, added road markings, reduced the speed limit from 56 to 40 km/h and banned alcohol sales for 3 days. They also declared that Samoans that migrated   to Aotearoa and Australia can ship affordable cars to Samoa.

Eventually in September 2009, there was a 2 day public holiday which allowed for locals   to familiarise themselves with driving on the left. It eventually came into effect in 8 September 2009. Many other countries in the world changed their driving orientation but Samoa is the only country in the world to have recently changed their driving orientation,

After Ghana in 1974, East Timor in 1976 and Yemen in 1977. Now we talked a bit about history, let’s look at the road networks. In Apia, there are a huge network of roads that have corners and bends. There are a couple of grid

Areas but is not in a gridlock like in Melbourne. Major roads include Beach road, Papase’ea road, Vaitele street and Fugalei street. When I went to Samoa in 2017, I didn’t see any street signs and I thought street names were uncommon, but as of 2021, street signs seem to have been installed.

Throughout Upolu, there is a road that encircles the coastal edges. Passing the villages of Tuana’i   (which is my grandfather’s village), Leulumoega, Faleolo Airport and Mulifanua. On the south side,   it passes Sa’anapu Conservation Area (my great grandfather’s village) conservation area, Tafatafa,   Lotofoga and Lalomanu, until turning back around passing Mount Savai’i and Letogo.

Some section in the road are well paved but there are others that are just straight up dirt,   gravel and rocks. There are also very mountainous roads with some having 20   to 45 degree slopes. Most of them pass over bridges and fords too. Going from one side

Of the island to another may seem like a road trip, but a couple of roads cross the island. One road that comes to mind is the Cross Island Road, going from Apia, crossing mount Fiamoe and ending at Si’umu (my great grandmother’s village).

There is another going from Fasito’otai to Safa’atoa and another that branches off called Alafa’alava road, going to the urban area of Siusega.  There are a couple of other roads, Le Mafa Pass and Richardson road going  from Falefa to Malaemalu and Lotofoga. There are some really beautiful isolated feeling places complete with palm trees,

Huge mountains, diverse fauna and impressive views of the ocean. On Savai’i, there is also a road encircling the island going along the coast. There are even a couple of roads to Falealupo, Tafua Rainforest and Mount Matavanu. This island doesn’t really have a cross island road because of the Silisili mountain range in-between,

The highest mountain in Samoa about 1858 metres above sea level. There is kind of a cross island road between Fusi and Patamea, but that doesn’t really count. In the two islands of Manono and Apolima, there are no roads, but paths.

When I went to Samoa, me and my family would go on these road trips to familiarise ourselves with the island and to know the areas my father’s family are familiar with. The weather just like Melbourne, can be a bit random with one area raining for a couple of minutes

And suddenly being sunny again. Most of the trips felt long because we had to drive quite slow, but the distances is aren’t very far. Here is Samoa overlaid in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As I lived in Samoa for about 2 years, I noticed a couple of things that were

Happening on the roads which were quite interesting to me. Every weekday, my mother and I would drive up the Cross Island road. There were lots of potholes on the road caused by heavy rain; the road was resurfaced but after a month, there were potholes again. The road was again resurfaced but the potholes would reappear quickly.

Turns out the roads are resurfaced really cheaply and the heavy rain can crack the road surface. Out of the cars I saw in Samoa that were on the left side of the road, I spotted some cars that still had the steering wheel on the left side. During the driving orientation change,

It seems that the Samoan government was quite relaxed on the driving policies. Replacing all of their left hand drive cars would have been expensive as hell, so they just kept them. In 2018, a category 4 cyclone hit Samoa with high winds and heavy rain. As a result,

Between Lalomanu and Saleapaga, there was a landslide burying one part of the South Coast Road. A couple of months later, the landslide was cleared up a bit, but instead of rebuilding the straight road, they built a C shaped corner road going around the landslide. It would have also been expensive to clear up the entire landslide.

On the Cross Island road, I noticed that with one house,   there was a driveway to a house with a banyan tree. Instead of chopping the tree, the road goes around the tree. It was built this way, not because it was cheaper, but for another reason. “AITU”

A word for ghosts or spirits in many Polynesian languages. Referred to as ‘trouble making’ on wikipedia, they are said to have come from Samoa and can be crueller than other Samoan gods. They often take the form of animals and plants, especially banyan trees. Similar to Hindu belief, many Aitu and other supernatural beings gather around banyan trees very often.  

There were stories that claim that if you were to cut or destroy the tree, Aitu would unleash their fury at you and you would die and become one with the Aitu. There is no scientific evidence of such occurrence, but there may be practical reasons. The leaves on the tree can block out sunlight,

Making it difficult to see and the branches may be tangled, making it difficult to move or sit and heavy branches can fall down. Your risk is increased in the nighttime. On the flip-side, somebody built a luxury treehouse inside a banyan tree though.

So it seems that Samoa relies mostly on cars as transport which makes sense for an island, but there is another kind of transport,  as many people don’t have access to a car. You may have seen a colourful vehicle on the road that resembles an American school bus, well that   is what these are.

These buses are an icon of Samoa, on par with the W class tram in Melbourne. Even though there are cars, there is also transport for the general public too. The question is, how can we get buses? how much will they cost to operate? will they be good for the terrain?

While many bus systems around the world have standardised low floor buses manufactured by an automobile company and are sometimes too big for roads, Samoans took a somewhat unconventional approach to public transit, by building a bus out of a truck chassis with cheap materials.

This is how it works. Take a Toyota DA truck chassis from the 1950s.  Remove doors and flatbeds.Retrofit a steel flatbed onto the chassis.  Build wooden walls and windows around the flatbed and drivers compartment.  Build a wooden roof. Add an entrance and makeshift lights and, Malo. [EXPLODE] You just built yourself a bus.

This bus ended up becoming an icon of Samoa and it was seen as a standard for constructing buses on masse. They are akin to the chicken buses in Guatamela and South America, which has converted old school North American school buses into wonderful buses. They are

Also akin to the infamous Pacer train in the UK, which are a couple of leyland buses converted into a diesel multiple unit  railcar. “Absolutely PATHETIC!” There are some modern buses in Samoa, but I will talk about the traditional buses which I will refer to as ‘Samoan buses’. To put things into perspective,

I will compare these buses to the modern low floor buses of Melbourne. The Samoan Buses are raised quite high, with the wheels above the passenger compartment. The high ground clearance makes the buses well equipped for mountainous roads, rocky roads, bumpy roads and muddy roads. Buses in Melbourne are low floor with the

Wheels embedded in the passenger compartment and often drive on flat and well maintained roads. The entrance to the Samoan Buses is a stairwell and is quite small, with no wheelchair access available.  Buses in Melbourne usually have wider doors and ramps that drop down for people with wheelchairs.

The buses in Melbourne have quite a large windshield for the driver whereas the windshield is quite small for the drivers in Samoa. Most of the Samoan Buses don’t have air conditioning but ventilation from open windows. It is quite humid in Samoa and people can sweat a lot. They have wooden

Seats partly because it is cheap and wood absorbs sweat better. Buses in Melbourne have air conditioning and cushioned seats, if cushion seats were in the Samoan buses, there be puddles of stinky sweat to sit on which is an unpleasant feeling.

The buses are quite a bit smaller than the big low floor buses of Melbourne. Their seats all   face forward to face the driver and the space is quite small and there is not enough standing room. In Samoan culture, it is considered taboo for young people to stand in front of

Older people. So when buses are overcrowded, people don’t stand in the bus but will sit on each others laps or si’i to fill the seats. It is said that tourists get to sit at the front,   now that is Fa’aloalo or respect right  there. Low floor buses in Melbourne are

Much bigger and spacious and have a mixture of transverse and sideways fold up seating. As most of the Samoan Buses were made out of a truck, the government didn’t have much of a budget to regulate the buses and didn’t start up an official public transit organisation.  

As a result, most of the buses are owned by private companies and families. The names of bus companies are quite unique, with some named after people or phrases.   Some that come to mind are Queen of Poto transport, Kingdom Transport, Glory to God, Lady Samoa, Lupeaulelei, Paradise  in Heaven, Madame Malele, Bon Jovi?

In Melbourne, the buses are owned by large serious companies that are managed by a large government parent organisation PTV or Public Transport Victoria. Most of the Samoan Buses have colourful, elaborate and glamorous decorations. The range from wacky paintjobs, LED lights, cartoons, bull horns, murals and much more.

A stark contrast to Melbourne’s  buses, which are just plain bland colours, not to mention the ones owned by PTV have these dull orange triangles. During the bus ride, the driver will play music on the stereo at full volume.

In Melbourne, no music is played on the stereo and on rare occasions, there is a faint radio playing. Riding a bus in Samoa is quite easy; there aren’t any official bus stops, Just wave to get the bus to stop, if you want to get off, there are some bell cords to pull down.  

Some buses don’t have that, so tap the wall with money on your hand to alert the driver you are getting off. You just need to give the driver 1 or 2 tala. The price may vary but it

Is usually not over 12 tala and don’t give them a 50 tala note as they might not give change. In Apia, there are two bus terminals, the Flea Market in Savalalo and the Fugalei Market, you may be able to ask where the buses are going there.

Chances are most of them do not run on a schedule and they are going to be quite slow. Some are even prone to breakdowns and because of their handmade construction, they are prone to terrible accidents. Most buses in Melbourne do have a weekly frequent schedule and sometimes arrive 10 minutes late.  

They also have LED destination displays and the route numbers on the front. In Samoa, they have their own set routes, you won’t be able to use a smartphone to plan bus rides here. They have village names on their front. A tourist organisation published an unofficial timetable in 2021 of the

Buses in Samoa and the places they go to from the 2 major bus terminals. I can’t   determine if this is accurate but here are some heads ups about the buses. In the weekdays, many buses arrive every 30 minutes to 2 hours. They run from about 5:00 to 16:00/17:00 in the

Outer villages and about 6:00 to 18:00/19:00 in Apia. Some drivers may finish their shift at 13:00. On Saturday, buses only run in the morning and there is nothing on Sundays. I guess this makes sense as this is usually a religious day where most people (especially the bus drivers)

Go to church, because of christian influence by the British. They will also gather around for a family lunch called To’onai and will go home to rest. It is considered Taboo to work on Sundays and most businesses are closed which also include buses. Apart from the iconic buses, there are also airport shuttles from Faleolo to

Apia and also the Mulifanua Wharf, which also leads us to our next transport mode.   These are about as close as you will get to a luxurious bus in Samoa. In Melbourne, people say their buses are not that great, but they would be luxurious by Samoan standards.

Apart from the ancient voyaging boats and the Paopao to get around mangroves and lakes and fishing boats, there are also a couple of modern boat services. One that stands out is the ferry service from Upolu to Savai’i. This is a large Va’a called Lady Samoa the Third. Apart from carrying passengers,

It also carries road vehicles. There is also the MV Samoa express the Second. The ferries travel between two ports; Mulifanua Wharf in Upolu; Salelologa Wharf in Savai’i Tickets range from about 10 to 20 tala for adults and about 5 tala for under 18s. If you have a car,

You would need to pay an extra 80 to 110 tala. You can’t book them online, you need to get them in person and they don’t have a debit card reader, you need cold hard cash. If you are taking anything else such as a stroller and bicycle, you still need to check in.

It takes about an hour or an hour and a half for the ferry to get to the other island. There are also VIP tickets for 20 tala added to the existing price tag, which includes air conditioned lounge, priority boarding and includes a snack, hot or cold drink, bathrooms and television.

There are only 2 to 3 ferries operating everyday and only one ferry service on Sundays. There is also a boat service to Manono island, they operate on Manono-Uta near Le Vasa Resort. There is no timetable and trips are usually arranged on site if people are there.

At Apia, there is also a port with another ferry, the MV Lady Naomi. It travels between the cities of Apia in Samoa and Pago Pago in American Samoa. It is unclear on where it departs from but tickets cost about 105 to 140 tala for adults and you can purchase them at the Samoa Shipping Corporation office.

The ferry usually departs every Thursday in 22:00. It takes about 10 hours to go from Apia to Pago Pago, but 31 hours from Pago Pago to Apia. There is also a cruise terminal at Apia Harbor, where magnificent cruise ships come and go. I remembered seeing very large cruise ships at the terminal from Beach road.

Since the 1950s, airplanes have become a fast and easy way to get from Samoa to other cities around the world. The main airport is Faleolo Airport, there are many airplanes that come and go bringing people from Aotearoa, Australia and Fiji. They are used by 5 international airlines and 2 local airlines.

Now Faleolo Airport is the main airport, but in Apia, there is one interesting exception. Within the urban area, there is a runway strip called Fagali’i airport. This small airport was once operated by Talofa Airways and Samoa Airways. Just like Faleolo, it was planned in 1939 as a military base for New Zealand.  

It didn’t go through and it wasn’t built until 1970. The airstrip was originally just grass but a runway was paved in 2002. The airport was subject to controversy as there were safety and environmental concerns with the location, being right next to local communities, probably similar to Essendon Fields Airport.

Eventually in 2019, it closed after failing to meet international standards for a proper airport. There was also the 2019 measles outbreak and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and it was used as a testing ground and a vehicle inspection site by the local police force. In 2022, the samoan government accepted a proposal to reopen the airport,

But instructed to find another location to build the airport. I can probably understand why it closed, it is right next to Samoa College. I actually went over there a couple of times to try out some computers at a new computer lab in 2017. I was playing with lego digital designer and I constantly heard propeller

Planes fly close to the window, in a similar way to hearing a truck pass. Now we talked about all the transport modes in Samoa, but what if I told you that Samoa once had a railway? Well, in 1914, as World War 1 began, a 610mm narrow gauge railway was constructed on Upolu.

Referred to as the Telefunken Railroad, it went for 12.9 kilometres going from the Apia Waterfront to a wireless station at Mount Vaea, with some branch lines to coconut plantations. They ran a little petrol locomotive manufactured by Moterinfabrik Oberursel, which was capable of going 19 kilometres an hour.

During its years, it was used to transport building materials. The line was in disrepair, but when Samoa became a colony of New Zealand, railway engineers from there, lifted and rebuilt the rails. Apparently the wireless station had parts stripped by Germans and it was difficult to put back in working order. Since 1916, the train transported soldiers, weapons,

Ballast, camping material and timber for the tents. It made 30 trips everyday between the two areas and a couple of additional lines were built to Vaea and Malifa camps. This wouldn’t last very long as military occupation ended in 1920 and the line was abandoned.

When I lived in Samoa for 2 years, I always wondered what Samoa would be like if it had a train system and I was quite surprised that Samoa actually had a little railway. In 2017, during my early years, I fantasised over what trains would look like in Samoa and

Made illustrations of a two carriage train. It has two doors. it is based on the iconic buses of Samoa and is defiently a mashup of the X’trapolis train and class 378 train. I even thought of a train company called SamoaRail. I even thought of where the railwayswould go.

I have been thinking of building the railway from Apia to Faleolo Airport as an airport express. I also imagined elevated train stations at the bus terminals at Savalalo and Fugalei Market and even an elevated railway alongside Vaitele Road and a train station at Vaitele.

In Google Earth, I decided to go even further and make a tram map for Apia. Being a somewhat cheaper option, I drew it along many major roads in Apia and a line going along to the tip of that peninsula. There is even a loop line going around the mountainous village of Lalovaea.

On the eastern side, there is one line going along beach road past Moata’a, with another line to the coastline and goes along the road terminating outside Letogo Primary school. There are also some other lines going to Fagali’i and a loop line around Vaivase village.  

There is also a line going up the Cross Island road, passing Robert Louis Stevenson museum until it terminates at Vaoala. On the western side, there are a series of lines with no dead ends, at Siusega and Tuanaimato. There is even a line that goes along the road to Faleolo Airport.

Though to be honest, building railways might be difficult. Try building one and see how many villages, mountains, sacred sites, forests, swamps, mangroves and cliff faces are in your way. It would also attract   controversy similar to Satuimalufilufi village scandal around Faleolo Airport. Also buses despite being slow, are still going strong so I am

Not sure if there needs to be any alternative. Although admittedly, my Aiga found it quite funny and if Samoa was recreated in Trainz, I would defiantly make it. So we have looked at all transit modes so what is going to happen in future?

In 2023, a UN Development Programme are exploring proposals and a project to make transport greener. Being funded by Japan they propose to introduce electric vehicles and electric boats. “Transitioning from petrol to EVs would decrease Samoa’s reliance on imported fossil fuels, making the country more energy independent and resilient in the face of fluctuating

Oil prices. Moreover, the adoption of EVs would improve air quality on the island, leading to cleaner and healthier living conditions for both residents and tourists” There are a couple of videos on youtube highlighting that electric vehicles are not a good idea. Usually the reasons are the large batteries being expensive, catching on fire,

Damaging the road as they are heavier and the batteries are manufactured out of slave labour. In 2022, a project was started called Samoa Aviation and Roads Investment Project, which aims to research the roads and airports and improve the resilience and safety of the infrastructure, involving drainage systems.

Samoa being two islands, are connected by a long ferry ride. As I lived in Samoa, I wondered if there was an ocean bridge going from Upolu to Savai’i. Since 2016, there has been talks of an ocean bridge linking Upolu and Savai’i passing Manono and Apolima islands.

It was once proposed by the Samoan government but it failed to gain traction. About 22 kilometres long, the bridge aims to make road travel easier, reduce travel times and make it less of a hassle to catch a ferry. In 2020, the Samoan government has considered the proposal and has asked the World Bank to

Fund it. However it was found that the World Bank are not funding such bridge, they did not reject it though. Turns out there were no current plans to support the project and the World Bank has been in constant discussions with the government. Also they have been involved

With upgrading the road to Faleolo Airport. As of February 2020, it currently remains as a concept. With Samoa having a somewhat low GDP and the bridge being quite long, the cost of building the bridge would be prohibitive. If we look at the worlds

Longest sea bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau, it is about 55 kilometres long. It took 9 years to build and it cost 20 billion US dollars which is about 55 piliona tala. The proposed bridge in Samoa is about half of the length and if we include cost it would be about 27.5 piliona tala.

This is quite an expensive project by Samoan standards and there is also the concern of a financial crisis. As Samoa has constantly been rebuilding itself from tsunamis and cyclones and upgrading roads constantly, it is quite unclear if such a bridge will be built, I would like to hear more about it though.

So that is a brief history of transport in Samoa. it is quite diverse and there are a range of colourful buses to ride on. I am not sure if there will be more people riding buses in the future,

Here is the modal share of transport in Samoa. Road traffic make up 63 to 90 percent of 31000 vehicles in Samoa, whereas buses, two wheelers and taxis take up 10 percent of modal shares. If you guys are planning on going to Samoa, I would recommend it, just be sure to show

Fa’aloalo to the locals and keep yourself up to date with weather and tsunami warnings. With my youtube channel, I seem to have now been making videos in the middle of the year and around Christmas time. This is because I have been at university focusing on completing

Assessment tasks and working towards my film career. I also don’t take much time to edit because I have to help my family out with stuff and help them thrive, which is a crucial part of Aiga and Fa’a Samoa. So I take a while to make youtube videos for those reasons.

There are a couple of other youtubers that sometimes take 2 to 5 months to make their videos. I am also learning new stuff in the editing software I use. Anyway, Samoa is quite a beautiful place my family is from and they have a good range of transport modes.

If you know anything else about Samoa’s transport modes, feel free to comment if you can. I would also like to thank my father Setu Taule’alo for helping me record this, as to not mispronounce any Samoan words. Living in Samoa for 2 years was quite an eye opening experience for me,

If you guys have lived in Samoa for over 2 years, I would like to hear about your experience. It is usually good to share our experiences with each other, even in a very western internet site. Fa’afetai for watching this video and toe feiloa’i, Tofa Soifua.

Hi everyone, so in 2017, you may have noticed throughout my youtube channel, that I stayed in the pacific island of Samoa for 2 years with my father’s family.

From making these scripted educational videos on my channel, I figured that I look a history of transport in Samoa as many other english speaking youtubers barely covered it. I will also add in my own observations and also talk about a transport topic which nobody talks about but I found quite fun to talk about.

POLYNESIAN WAYFINDING VIDEOS

FOLLOW ME
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masina.taulealo.3
Tumblr: https://masinat.tumblr.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/masinataulealo?lang=en

ELECTRIC CAR VIDEOS
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiI1AcsJlYU
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1kOLhhSjl8
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dnN82DsQ2k
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G67i_Z8ukD4

MUSIC
Lue lue – Te Vaka
No Indication – TrackTribe
Pate mo tou agaga – Te Vaka
Vaka gaoi – Te Vaka
Mata O tane – Te Vaka
Te Vaka ka Fano – Te Vaka
Vaakaitu” – Te Vaka
Living on a Prayer – Bon Jovi
Samulai – Te Vaka
Te Lalama Te Vaka
Vevela – Te Vaka
Ke Faitatala – Te Vaka