Railways Africa

Gauteng MEC for roads and transport Ismail Vadi has announced that Gautrain peak-hour fares are to rise by 6% from June 2013. However, in an effort to attract more passengers in the off-peak, charges between 09:00 and 15:00 are to fall by 15%. According to Vadi, the new structure is aimed at “attracting different market [...]

Four cost-benefit studies have been commissioned by the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA), CEO Jack van der Merwe announced in mid-May, to “explore the feasibility of extending the rail services in four directions”. This is to respond to a forecast doubling in the province’s population during the next ten years.

The Bombela Operating Company’s Kelebogile Machaka is quoted saying: “Gautrain’s average weekday ridership in March 2013 (about 48,000) reflects an increase of 60% compared with March 2012 (about 30,000). She added ominously that the growth in patronage is placing “severe strain” on the system during peak hours, “with passenger demand already approaching levels only predicted [...]

A notice on the Gautrain website and displayed in all its trains says explicitly: “The Gauteng Provincial Government. Bombela Operating Company and their shareholders, directors, officers, employees, subcontractors or agents or affiliates in whole or in part, shall not be liable in any way whatsoever for any loss, injury or damage (including but not limited [...]

Dealing with widespread criticism in the press about Gautrain airport service ceasing at 20:30, Bombela operating consortium general manager Errol Braithwaite explained in a letter to Business Day: “We have applied our minds to the issue of earlier and later trains to the airport, so that when we do start operating longer hours we do [...]

On 29 April it was reported that Gautrain bus drivers had returned to work and that services were once again running normally. Subcontracted operating company Mega Express reached a deal with the United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) for a 9% pay increase, effective from 1 April. Utatu deputy general secretary Pieter Greyling told [...]

Patronage of several Gautrain station car parks, notably Pretoria and Centurion, has overtaken demand. The Bombela operating consortium has been appealing to customers to use Gautrain feeder buses as far as possible. Unfortunately, on 19 April, the bus drivers went on strike – so there were no buses. Dismayed Gautrain passengers have seen this scenario [...]

Widespread criticisms levelled at Gautrain since services to the airport started running almost three years ago concern the early evening (20:30) “last trains”. People who fly out in the early morning find themselves stranded at the airport if a late afternoon return flight is slightly delayed. The implications can be far-reaching, notably for people who [...]

Gautrain’s new “Z-card” pocket guide – detailing all feeder bus routes, new and old – is being distributed free to commuters (via station dispensers) as an add-on to the initial train-route Z-card. The facility provides a “real-time service update application”, received directly on passengers’ cellphones. According to Bombela Concession Company’s Errol Braithwaite, users register by [...]

Daily Gautrain passenger loadings approaching 50,000 are putting “an immense amount of strain on the capacity we have available,” Bombela Concession Company general manager Errol Braithwaite admitted in a recent interview. In an attempt to try levelling the disparity in peak and off-peak demand, lower fares in the middle of the day are under consideration. [...]