Low passenger numbers bedevil Rea Vaya

©SUNG KUK KIM via 123RF

Not enough passengers

Executive director of transportation for the city Lisa Seftel said yesterday demand was below international benchmarks for such bus systems. Most Johannesburg corridors had about 10,000 commuters who could use Rea Vaya, compared to a minimum of 14,000 passengers in some South American countries, according to Seftel.

Speaking at the Transport Forum Month of Transport Celebrations held at the University of Johannesburg yesterday, she added that the low passenger numbers in Johannesburg were due to the apartheid spatial legacy and not enough had been done to increase passenger density on the corridors. Short-term initiatives should be implemented, along with long-term projects, to improve public transport.

"If you look at what we have done, we have introduced a lot of infrastructure for a lot of money but passenger numbers are not there," said Seftel. "Our passenger numbers, we hope, will be there in the future." Some Rea Vaya stations that had not yet been used, she added.

The phases of Rea Vaya

Phase 1A and 1B of the Rea Vaya project had an estimated cost of R3bn. Phase 1A runs over 300km and operates between Ellis Park and Doornfontein and Thokoza Park in Soweto, linking with feeder routes in Soweto.

Phase 1B routes include the Thokoza Park to Parktown route, as well as the feeders and complementary services to and from Cresta, Yeoville, Parktown, Pimville, Dobsonville and Mapetla. Phase 1C, designed to connect Louis Botha Avenue in the northeast of the city with Alexandra, terminating in the financial hub of Sandton, is expected to be the most expensive of the three.

SA has plans for the roll-out of bus rapid transit systems in 12 of its largest cities. Tshwane's A Re Yeng cost R2.6bn and Rustenburg's system is expected to cost R3bn. Cape Town has its MyCiti Bus Rapid Transit service.

Focus on other bus systems

Transport analyst Paul Browning said bus rapid transit systems were not for places such as Johannesburg, as the city did not have the population densities required for a fixed bus transport system. "With the development of a brT system, it would have been better to start with high-frequency bus services and not special construction of a fixed service. Then as demand is built up and proven to be there, there would be the numbers to justify a brT system," he said.

Seftel said the city was working with minibus taxis to help them improve their service and efficiency. They were an integral part of the transport system and could be "an appropriate response to the spatial environment".

"We are doing a number of things to assist minibus taxis to improve and transform," she said. "We are increasingly recognising that we do have multiple commuter transport service providers and we can't only focus on Rea Vaya... We have to also focus on our other bus services," she said.

In June, the City of Johannesburg signed an agreement for the second operator of the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system after two years of negotiations. In terms of this agreement, affected taxi and bus operators become shareholders in a company that will own the Rea Vaya buses from year six of a 12-year contract.

The contract governs the provision of bus services along the Rea Vaya Phase 1B route. Phase 1C negotiations were expected to take longer than Phase 1A and 1B had done, owing to the length of the route, an intersection that has to be built and the number of parties in the taxi and bus industries involved in the talks.

Source: Business Day