If south africa’s largest provincial economy is to continue to grow, a way has to be found for its people and its goods and services to move around quickly and efficiently. The current road network is operating at full capacity – Gauteng is South Africa’s smallest province by land mass, yet it contains 38% of the country’s motor vehicles – and there is a limit to how many lanes can be added to any road system. Which is where the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link (Gautrain) and the Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) come in.

The objective of both projects is to get commuters out of their cars and into alternative forms of transport. Another critical issue is coordination of these projects with existing forms of public transport, namely busses and taxis. These will have to work as feeders for the Gautrain and BRT, which can only operate on fixed routes: although the BRT uses busses, it works more like a tram system. Gautrain will also have its own
bus-feeder system branded like the train.

The Gautrain will link each of the three metropoles in Gauteng province: Ekurhuleni (at Oliver Tambo station at the airport), the City of Johannesburg (at Park Station in the city centre) and Tshwane (at Pretoria station and Hatfield). When Johannesburg’s bus system reaches full capacity, the Rea Vaya – the brand name chosen for the BRT, meaning ‘we are going’ – will connect Sunninghill in the north, Protea Glen in the west, Eastgate and Lenasia in the south. The City of Tshwane’s BRT system will cost R1.9-billion and cover 92km.

Although a lot of hope and money has been invested in the train and bus projects, Gauteng has not ignored the value of roads. A total of R23-billion will be spent on upgrading Gauteng’s freeways in several phases to
2020. In a joint venture between the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral), the provincial government and the province’s three metropolitan councils, approximately 561km of roads will be either built or improved.

Gautrain Rapid Rail Link
The R25.2-billion Gautrain is a rapid rail link that will connect Johannesburg and Pretoria, with an extra link to OR Tambo International Airport. Altogether there will be 10 stations serving the line, including the three final destinations (north, south and east). The train will reach a top speed of 160km/h and the journey from Johannesburg to Pretoria will be completed in 42 minutes.

Construction of the Gautrain is being undertaken in two phases, running concurrently. At the time of writing, a decision had not been made as to whether the process would be speeded up to ensure that the line from the
airport to Sandton would be completed in time for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. The original contract did not stipulate this, because it was awarded four years before the World Cup bid was won.

As the concept of a speed train is new to South Africa, sceptics doubt whether the Gautrain will receive sufficient support. However, a new factor will influence motorists’ cost-benefit equations in 2010 – toll roads. Many of the new highways being built will prohibit single-person occupancy and many of the roads will be tolled, making it more economic to take the Gautrain.

Plans envisage trains carrying 320 people at a go, although in busy times it would be possible to link two or even three trains, pushing carrying capacity up to nearly 700.

According to the Bombela Concession Company, the lead consortium in the Gautrain project, 92 900 direct and indirect jobs had been created by the end of May 2009, of which 18 200 are local direct jobs.

The project is a complex one, with long tunnels under established parts of the city and long viaducts over freeways. Shareholders in Bombela are Murray & Roberts Limited (a South African engineering, contracting and construction concern), Strategic Partners Group (a BEE partner), Bombardier UK (a Canadian aerospace and rail-transport company), Bouygues Travaux Publics (the French company that recently built the longest tunnel for a high-speed train in the Netherlands), J&J Group (an investment company) and Absa Capital. Work on the Gautrain has been done through dozens of subcontracts.

Rea Vaya
The City of Johannesburg rolled out the first of its BRT bus trips in August 2009 in the face of considerable opposition from the vocal minibus-taxi industry. At the moment about 12 000 minibus taxis transport more than a million people in and around Johannesburg every day, representing 70% of the public transport market. The city believes that this is inefficient, expensive and bad for the environment.

Rea Vaya buses will run in dedicated lanes to special stations along major routes. Phase one of the project, with a fleet of 143 busses, will cost R1.6-billion. At the end of the project, there will be 300km of Rea Vaya infrastructure across the city.

A central control room will keep track of all busses and each station will have closed-circuit television cameras. The system will run from 5am to midnight and, in peak times, a bus will run every three minutes.

Three types of routes are envisaged. The 112-seat busses made by Swedish company Scania will operate on the main route, while complementary busses will carry 75 passengers to and from the main dropoff points. Smaller, feeder buses will take passengers to outlying areas.

The first phase of Tshwane’s R1.9-billion BRT scheme, the section between Mabopane Station and Pretoria Station, is expected to be launched by early 2010.