BDFM Online
Thursday, November 30, 2006
JOHANNESBURG was to get a new bus system that would revolutionise public transport and make it easier for visitors to the 2010 Fifa World Cup to get around the city, mayoral committee member for transport Rehana Moosajee announced yesterday.
City officials have been concerned that traffic congestion in Johannesburg would increase sharply in the next 10 years prompted by increased prosperity and dissatisfaction with the city's public transport system.
The bus rapid transport system, a super-quick bus network that works like a rail system, which has been successfully implemented in cities around the world, was approved last week by city officials and its first phase is expected to be operational by April 2009.
The system is expected to cost the city about R2bn to set up.
It offers increased capacity and efficiency at half the price of a light rail system and will be the first unsubsidised public bus system in SA.
It is expected to operate from 5am to midnight, cost the same as current bus fares and will be run by private operators on contract to the city. The aim is to eventually have the bus route accessible to 85% of the city's population.
Moosajee said the city was taking advantage of the 2010 deadline to address long-standing transport problems in the city.
"We want to give residents something that is efficient and of sufficient quality that they would want to give up their private vehicles," she said.
The first phase of the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system consists of routes from Nasrec to Ellis Park via Newtown; Dobsonville to Troyeville via the CBD; Lenasia to Sunninghill; Randburg to the CBD; Alexandra to Regina Mundi; Braamfontein to the CBD and a central inner-city route.
It will also make use of feeder systems and will have links with the main Gautrain and commuter rail stations.
Moosajee said the biggest obstacle to the new system would be getting buy-in of the taxi industry, which the city hoped to bring into the system.
Taxi representatives accompanied Johannesburg council representates to Guayaquil, Equador, and Bogota, Colombia earlier this year to see the systems in operation and to consult taxi operators there.
"The system creates an opportunity for taxi operators to use the money from recapitalisation to exit the taxi industry and come together to tender to operate buses on the routes," said Moosajee.
Minibus taxis will not be able to use the dedicated lanes and will run in mixed traffic with private vehicles.
Metrobus and Putco will tender for routes alongside other operators.
The system will use 18m articulated vehicles, of which the mechanical components will have to be imported, but which will be assembled locally and will make use of enclosed stations and preboarding fare collection.
Bob Stanway, executive director of the city's transport department, said motorists were likely to see increased congestion on many of the routes during construction of the dedicated middle lane, particularly in Oxford Road, where there is already construction on the Gautrain. Stanway said the routes were chosen to ensure maximum ridership on the system.
"In order for the system to be unsubsidised we had to put together a network which brought in sufficient income to cover running costs."