Public transportation in Iraq

Hi Armand,
I see that no one has answered your post, but to be honest, I don't know of any expat who uses the bus system in Erbil.
-C-

Hi Thiscatsabroad!

Thanks for your response

Armand

In Erbil there is no public bus. There are private shared buses that travel popular routes. I have been on one or two but try to not get on if it is all men as I am a woman.

Usually I take a taxi. Local women only use taxi drivers they know and they use the same ones over and over again. Fares range from 3000 ID to 9000ID depending upon how far and how long to get there. There are no meters in the taxis. Locals just pay the fare they know which is much less than what expats pay. If you take a taxi in front of a mall like Family Mall or Majidi Mall and the taxi has the name of the mall painted on it you will pay a lot more than on another taxi. It can be cheaper to walk away from the mall a little and then flag down a taxi that is passing by. Passing taxis may honk at you. It means they are free to take a passenger.

There is Hello Taxi, expensive but good, which I use to go to and from the airport. I use this one if I have to go somewhere alone at night. I try to stay home at night unless I am with a group.

There is also now a "Pink Taxi" which is driven only by women and only for women. I do not use it because I already have a local driver I am happy with.

Hi happy2beinindia,

Thank you for your contributions

Very usefull info,thanks a lot

An update about transportation. Hello Taxi has a new name. They are now called Airport Taxi. They have created a monopoly at the airport. Their prices are very high. If you arrive at the airport you may get lucky and someone else gets dropped off in a regular taxi at which point you can hire that driver, otherwise there is only Airport Taxi. Once you have lived here you could arrange for a local taxi to come and pick you up at the airport.

To say that Hello Taxi created a monopoly isn´t fair - the airport tendered this contract and Hello Taxi "won". It´s unfortunate that only one taxi company is allowed to bring passengers to the main terminal, but it´s obviously a security matter. If you choose not to use them (I agree they´re horribly expensive for the service), take a regular taxi to the drop-off area. At that point you take the shuttle bus to the terminal.

Another update though is that Pink Taxi is no longer in business. The best course of action is to find a taxi driver you like/trust - better to have one recommended to you. Incidents of taxi-kidnapping/rape are on the rise. These incidents are seldom pursued by the local police.