The 2010 Soccer World Cup is going to stretch South Africa’s transport capacity to its limits, and in some cases beyond, Parliament’s portfolio committees on sport and recreation and transport heard on Tuesday.
Briefing MPs on his department’s still-to-be-released 2010 Transport Action Plan, the deputy director general of integrated planning and inter-sphere coordination, Mathabatha Makonyama, said the event would require 60 trains, about 2 400 buses and at least 6 000 minibus taxis.
”[The country’s] car hire fleets … will be hired out completely, together with the tourism industry’s charter and shuttle fleets,” he said.
South Africa’s domestic airlines would be stretched to beyond their current capacity.
”If you don’t add capacity, you are in trouble,” Makonyama warned.
The 2010 World Cup was expected to take place ”somewhere between the second week of June and the second week of July” of that year, he said.
According to a Department of Transport document distributed to members at the briefing, initial analysis ”confirms that the scale and dynamics of the 2010 events will be unlike anything ever experienced in South Africa before, and will require planning and coordination beyond any transport management experience the country has ever faced”.
Makonyama said initial travel demand estimates were based on the assumption that 32 teams would play 64 matches in nine host cities around the country.
About 50 000 spectators would, on average, attend each match; about 3,2-million tickets would be sold, 70% of these internationally; and about 300 000 international ticket holders would visit South Africa, each attending, on average, four to five matches.
There would be a further 200 000 ”long-haul and cross-border arrivals without tickets”, he said.
MPs expressed concern about existing traffic congestion in cities such as Johannesburg and Cape Town, and asked how the department planned to sort this problem out for World Cup visitors.
The African National Congress’s Cas Saloojee noted it sometimes took not less than four hours to travel from Johannesburg International airport to his home in the city, and said ”fundamental changes” were required to South Africa’s road and air transport systems.
”It doesn’t appear to me these types of problems are being licked … we are running into very serious problems,” he said.
Makonyama said one of the options his department was looking at was brining forward university and school winter holidays in 2010.
”As government, we can impress upon the Department of Education and universities to move this holiday to start earlier, in the first week of June,” he said.
This was seen as a ”plan B” should it not be possible to convince Fifa to set back the 2010 start date to late June, to coincide with the normal holiday dates.
The effect of such a move would reduce transport on the roads of the host cities and make available university residences for use by visitors.
Transport-wise, the busiest period would be about day 15 of the event.
”Around day 15, you will need an additional 26 standard 12-coach trains, carrying 800 passengers each, and 460 coaches of 50 seats each.”
Makonyama said his department’s 2010 transport plan should have been made public several weeks ago, but officials were busy ”improving” it, and the document would be released in October by Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe. — Sapa