An artist's impression of what the new Harambee bus stations will look like
Being able to move easily from one point to another is essential; a working transport system is the heart that will pump life into the City of Ekurhuleni.
In order to maintain a functioning economy in Ekurhuleni — which has nine far-flung towns and 17 townships — people must be able to travel between important destinations safely, comfortably and quickly.
The key to uniting the metro will be integrating the new Harambee bus rapid transit (BRT) system with the existing bus services, revitalised rail networks, minibus taxi services and a network of cycling paths and pedestrian walkways to form Ekurhuleni’s Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network.
The brain connecting the city
At the centre of it all is the Transport Management Centre, a communication hub in Spartan, Kempton Park, described by Mayor Mondli Gungubele as “the brain that will connect the city”.
The R16-million state-of-the-art centre began monitoring all the existing Ekurhuleni bus services in March 2016.
The total cost for the design, construction and operationalisation of the centre included:
• Refurbishment of the old Disaster and Emergency Management Services building;
• Installing information and communications technology equipment; and
• Installing the Eyevis 70-inch Slim Cube DLP video wall. Maintained by Opitec in South Africa, this new wall-mounted technology is the first of its kind installed in Africa.
“As the public transport network grows, we will add the additional buses to the monitoring process. The intention is to equip all the new buses with automated vehicle location devices to enable the staff at the Transport Management Centre to monitor the movement of the buses,” says Gungubele.
The high-tech centre will host two major intelligent transportation systems: the Automated Fare Collection system and the Advanced Public Transport Management System.
The fare collection system will assist with the reconciliation of all the revenue collection in the Harambee system.
The Advanced Public Transport Management System — essentially the key to public transport operations — will manage the scheduling and monitoring of the buses, while ensuring that CCTV camera footage is supervised from the management centre.
Situated next to Kempton Park Fire Station, the centre will also accommodate Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department officials and disaster management services to assist with law enforcement and incidents experienced on the roads.
The road so far
The development of Ekurhuleni’s transport management system has created employment for about 440 local residents. Forty call centre agents will work at the transport management centre.
Most of the other jobs come from two contractors, who have upgraded a 2km complementary route in Hospital View, in the north of the city, from two to four lanes, as part of Harambee’s development.
The construction of dedicated bus lanes on the trunk route from Tembisa Civic Centre to Phomolong has commenced; these should be completed this year. The portion of the trunk route from Phomolong to the R25 is also nearing completion.
The route from Tembisa Civic Centre will have nine BRT stations. Most of the substructures (foundations) of these stations are under construction; four are nearly ready for the superstructure contractors to erect the stations.
Bus Rapid Transit
Harambee (which means “pulling together” or “working together” in Swahili) is being rolled out in three phases. Phase 1A runs from Tembisa to Vosloorus; Phase 1B will be from Rhodesfield to Boksburg via OR Tambo International Airport; and Phase 1C will run from Boksburg to Vosloorus.
Phase 1A consists of:
• A BRT trunk route from Tembisa Civic Centre to Rhodesfield;
• A complementary route from Tembisa Hospital to Isando and Spartan;
• Feeder routes in Tembisa and Kempton Park to provide access to the stations on the trunk route; and
• A feeder route to serve OR Tambo International Airport.
The City plans to implement the bus service in Tembisa in stages during this year. The entire Phase 1A system should be completed during the 2017/18 financial year.