LINE TO CAPE TOWN AIRPORT
Posted on 14 March 2010
When he addressed the Cape Town Press Club on 8 March 2010, Western Cape transport MEC Robin Carlisle was quoted saying: “We are also looking at a rail link to the airport.”
Carlisle spelled out the realities: “If co-ordinated properly, railways could provide the strong backbone for travel with buses, taxis and other arterial forms of transport branching off for point-to-point contact.
“The railway is already a significant part of many people’s lives, but in my opinion could be a much more exciting and viable primary method for Capetonians to get around. In the development of a redrafted public transport system we have to examine what has gone wrong and trace our steps back to first causes.
“Our inner-city absorbs 200, 000 vehicles a day, transporting some 275,000 people. Inevitably this scars our streetscape and creates man-made jungles of unproductive space. Between a quarter and a third of all new buildings are dedicated to parking. Some 69% of Capetonians travel to work by private car, with a loading of approximately 1.3 persons per car. This is appalling inefficiency and I do not need to spell out the consequences for our fragile environment.
“We are going against the grain of city refashioning everywhere and incurring long-term negative effects to the health and productivity of Cape Town The aim is to move away from a paradigm where cities are wired for the industrial age and reliant on huge amounts of fossil fuels. What we want are cities that have negligible carbon footprints and use less resources. To achieve this, we have to transform the profile of our public transport.
“This is not only to ensure that our vibrant city survives into the future making it socially mobile, environmentally sensitive and give it a bit of cosmopolitan funkiness, but a rather streamlined sexy appeal in the world view.
“So what are the defining characteristics of such a public transport system?
For one, it is scheduled and reliable. Two, it is frequent during peak time to avoid overcrowding. Three, it is integrated and comprehensive – commuters should not have to walk more than 500 metres to and from their bus, taxi or train. Interconnectivity, that much loved buzzword, is the name of the game.
Four, it is safe for the whole trip. Lastly, it is affordable and operates eighteen hours a day.
“What is the current reality? Dismal. Our public transport for the functional commuter area of Cape Town, Drakenstein and Stellenbosch significantly fail to meet any of these characteristics. Even worse is the fact that it is in sharp decline, with fewer trips and at more expense. We have to ask quite seriously if this scenario could be changed. In answer to this – our current rail and road network is capable of providing an exceptional public transport network. We need 117 train sets, but we only have 83.
Related posts:
- CAPE TOWN STATION REVAMP
- CAPE TOWN STATION REVAMP
- WESTERN CAPE TRANSPORT PLANS
- JOHANNESBURG TRANSPORT IS READY
- SIMON’S TOWN LINE CLOSED
- SIMON’S TOWN LINE CLOSED
- CAPE TOWN CONTAINER TERMINAL
The current “fashion” with airport train stations seems to be to elevate them – Gautrain’s station at Johannesburg airport is like this. Many years ago a double-track underground station was built at Johannesburg airport, in anticipation of one day being used when an airport rail line was built. It is still there, sealed off and abandoned. So planning ahead sometimes doesn’t work …
The airport at Brisbane in Australia has an elevated train station which is very nice indeed – you step off the train directly onto the terminal concourse ; no steps, escalators or lifts.
I suspect that when (if?) a rail link to Cape Town airport is ever built (and it is only 3 or 4 kilometres to the nearest MetroRail line), it will be elevated above the existing complicated road system and sited directly alongside the concourse. This will work quite well from what I’ve seen of the changes being made to the airport.
The lack of a rail link to the airport is inexplicable, given that an existing commuter line runs exactly on its perimeter, some three kilometers from the terminal on flat and featureless terrain.
What is even more extraordinary is that ACSA were allowed to rebuild the entire terminal complex, without being required simultaneously to build an underground station. Given the sandy conditions of the Cape Flats, it would have presented no great difficulty and even if the actual link only came in a couple of years time (although, why???) at least the preparation would have been done.
Now any station will probably be inconveniently far from the terminal buildings, and exposed to winter rain and summer wind. Fairly typical of local planning, however….
Very good points on the characteristics of a transport system.
When I lived and worked in Cape Town I used the bus from Table View to St George’s Mall. Worked well if I managed to catch the one bus into the city in the morning and the two buses back. If not, it was about a R140 taxi ride.
I swapped back to using my car when summer rolled along since the buses were overcrowded and had no air conditioning.