From Business Day 7 April 2011:
http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/C ... ?id=139467
‘Transport links vital to success’ of Gautrain
National Consumer Forum believes the Gautrain is solution to Gauteng’s notorious highway traffic congestion.
SUE BLAINE
Published: 2011/04/07 07:10:21 AM
WHILE the Gautrain is without doubt the correct solution to Gauteng’s notorious highway traffic congestion, the rail project will stand or fall by its linkages with other public transport, according to the National Consumer Forum’s deputy chairwoman, Ina Wilken.
The train is being introduced to reduce highway congestion and promote economic development and employment, and regular commuters would benefit from a 20% discount on a monthly ticket or a 10% discount on a weekly one, Gauteng roads and transport MEC Ismail Vadi said yesterday when he announced the high-speed train’s full fare complement. The full service will be running from July 1.
"I do agree it is the solution once other public transport is in order," Ms Wilken said. The fees — a monthly ticket buyer would pay R39 per trip on the train’s longest route, from Pretoria’s Hatfield Station to Johannesburg’s Park Station — were on the expensive side if the linkages to public transport were not good, Ms Wilken said.
The Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng roads and transport spokesman, Neil Campbell, said the fees Mr Vadi announced were "not far off" the fees first mooted, and he did not believe they were excessive.
Ms Wilken urged commuters to give the Gautrain a go because that was the only way to determine whether it was workable.
The Gauteng provincial government’s Gautrain project leader, Jack van der Merwe, said the whole point was to run Gautrain buses as a "supply-side management" operation as opposed to a demand-side one.
"People need to know there is a bus every half hour," he said.
The Gautrain buses were transporting about 14000 people a day and this was expected to rise to 110000 people a day when the Tshwane-Johannesburg train leg was opened.
Mr Vadi said the Gautrain’s prices were "very close to taxi fares … The train is not for the middle class per se, we should see ordinary working-class people on the Gautrain." Taxis charged R38 for the Hatfield-Park Station route.
The Hatfield to Park Station route is the train’s longest, and a weekly ticket would cost R43 a trip. A single ticket would be R49.
The train cannot be seen in isolation — the government and the South African National Roads Agency plan to introduce a freeway toll system in Gauteng. Pricing has yet to be set, after a public outcry delayed the introduction of a toll fee of 66c/km.
Mr van der Merwe said commuters should "forget the prices" and focus on the time the train would save them.
A trip from Midrand to Sandton would take 10 minutes, irrespective of outside conditions, he said. The train is contractually obliged to run at 98% efficiency.
