Never mind the Gautrain, here’s the Rea Vaya rapid bus transport system at only a fraction of the cost.
The city of Johannesburg has already begun implementation of its plans for a revolutionary new R2-billion bus system that will run every three to 10 minutes in dedicated bus lanes.
The bus rapid transport (BRT) system, which is expected to be up and running around April 2009, is based on similar transport initiatives that have been successfully implemented in Latin America.
Johannesburg’s Executive Director of Transport, Bob Stanway, says the city is following the business model used to implement the TransMilenio BRT system in Bogota, Colombia, where existing taxi and bus operators are incorporated into the new companies that supply the rapid bus service.
The first phase of the BRT system is made up of six new routes covering 96km of Johannesburg’s roads.
Routes will run from Lenasia to Sunninghill; Alexandra to Regina Mundi; Dobsonville to Troyeville; Nasrec to Ellis Park; Randburg to the CBD and on an inner city circle route.
Buses will run in exclusive, dedicated lanes in the centre of existing roads, with 150 stations situated about 500m apart.
“They will operate like a mini train station,” says Stanway. “They will be high-speed, high-frequency, low- fare buses with easy boarding and alighting.”
Buses will either be 65- or 160-seaters and will operate from 5am in the morning till midnight.
Stanway says the system will integrate with a number of feeder systems and also with the Gautrain, and that the fare systems for all transport modes will be smart card-based, which will make this integration seamless.
He says the plan is to offer a number of park-and-ride facilities to encourage vehicle drivers to get out of their cars, especially in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, where vehicle density is very high.
Stanway says the original strategic public transport network plan had been for special curbside lanes for buses and taxis, but during a review of the policy in August last year, the city’s transport department realised that it needed a more substantial intervention, in the form of the BRT.
“For the business model we are following the examples of Latin America where, in a number of cities, they managed to convince the previous bus and taxi operators to join forces,” says Stanway. “In some of their corridors they have exactly the same problem as Johannesburg with thousands of taxis and busses all chasing passengers, and it’s just chaos.”
Stanway says the idea would be to incorporate bus and taxi operators into the company that delivers the new rapid bus service.
“They have been able to work with the taxis drivers and owners, to have a partnership with them, whereby they agree to move towards a full bus rapid transit and they would then have a contract to provide these services on a vehicle kilometer basis,” says Stanway. “They just have to provide buses on time, at high frequencies and at a high service level.”
“In Jo’burg, at the moment, we have 72% of public transport made up by mini-bus taxis, so if you took the Yellow route, for example, then there would be a yellow bus route company that might comprise 72% taxi and 28% bus operators contracted to provide the service,” says Stanway.
Stanway says the BRT system will integrate with the taxi recapitalisation programme, so that taxi owners can use the money to invest in buses to be used to roll out the rapid bus services.
However, Stanway says consultation with the bus and taxi operators has only just recently begun and although the city has had some “useful consultations”, they are quite far from reaching an agreement.
Stanway says the city is in the fortunate position of having secured most of the R2-billion funding for the project already.
He says the project has received almost R1-billion in funding over the next three years through a project run by the national department of transport and treasury to provide infrastructure for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Stanway says the city is also providing a substantial amount of the required budget as well as a significant share of the R29-million operating costs that are required.
He says the balance will be provided through a grant from an EU country that is almost secured and through the Clinton Foundation, which is sponsoring the project in line with their climate change initiatives.