With Your Say The Cape Town Sky Train Could Be A Reality

If you haven’t heard about the Cape Town Sky Train, here are the essentials, and how to have your say before public comment closes on 25 August 2025.

Background

The City of Cape Town has opened a statutory public participation process on the proposed sale of City-owned land at Three Anchor Bay (Erf 2187, Green Point) for a mixed-use development. The comment window runs till the 25 August 2025.

Erf 2187 measures approximately 4.5 hectares and lies just outside the Green Point Common boundary. City discussions around the site indicate expectations of raising in the region of R700 million from the sale. While some have suggested that such a capital injection could support freeway completion on the foreshore, the submission highlighted here cautions that adding road capacity encourages private car use and will not resolve congestion within the CBD and Atlantic Seaboard.

The Crux of the Proposal

The submission proposes an elevated commuter rail line from Woodstock to Sea Point, threading through the foreshore freeway corridor and along the median of Helen Suzman Boulevard, with three stations:

CTICC
Cape Town Stadium (Green Point)
Sea Point / Three Anchor Bay

The line would be built to PRASA standards, enabling through-running of PRASA services (including X’Trapolis Mega EMUs) so trains from the Southern, Central, Cape Flats and Northern lines could operate directly into Sea Point without a transfer at Cape Town station. Full grade separation aims to deliver reliable end-to-end journeys while complementing MyCiTi services across the inner-city and Atlantic Seaboard.

Station Focus

CTICC Station: Positioned on the foreshore structures integrated with the CTICC precinct to serve exhibitions and conferences, with potential connectivity to the Cruise Terminal.
Cape Town Stadium Station: Configured for event surges with short headways for rapid crowd clearance. The concept indicates the system could clear up to 24,000 spectators in about 30 minutes during major events.
Sea Point / Three Anchor Bay Terminus: Envisaged as a mixed-use terminus building with basement parking, street-level retail, station platforms above, office space and mixed-income residential levels. The largely indoor design aims to limit noise, retain existing trees and improve access to the Promenade and Green Point Park.

Network Integration and Capacity

Woodstock is identified as the natural origin point where multiple PRASA corridors converge, enabling frequent direct services to Sea Point, including express operations that can bypass Cape Town station when required. The elevated alignment removes conflicts with road traffic and is presented as providing capacity of up to 30,000 passengers per hour per direction, shifting trips from private cars to high-capacity rail serving the CBD, the V&A Waterfront, Green Point and Sea Point.

Land Use, Delivery and Funding

Replacing new freeway links with elevated rail would keep movement within existing transport corridors and, according to the submission, could free significant foreshore land for development. A split-role delivery model is outlined: the City funds and owns civil structures and stations; PRASA and the national government fund and operate rail systems. PRASA would then pay a usage fee for City-built assets. The approach is positioned to unlock value for reinvestment while prioritising people-moving capacity over added road capacity.

Why This Matters

Cape Town’s inner-city and Atlantic Seaboard attract large and growing numbers of visitors for events, tourism and daily work trips. The submission argues that an elevated, PRASA-integrated rail link would move significantly more people, more efficiently, than completing the “unfinished” foreshore freeways, while enabling mixed-use development and broadening affordable access to opportunity.

Have Your Say

In terms of Section 17 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, Act 32 of 2000, the public and interested parties or groups are given the opportunity to submit comments by 25 August 2025 using the following link:

https://web1.capetown.gov.za/web1/websitefeedback/?id=00887665-cedb-49b0-8423-81f9b7038929

Additional links: