Plan to build monorail may be illegal

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The R12-billlion monorail linking Soweto with the Johannesburg CBD will likely not even make it on the tracks as the procurement process was "irregular" and the national department of transport has not approved the plan.

This is according to Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, who was speaking on Talk Radio 702 this morning.

Radebe slammed the Gauteng provincial government for going ahead with the proposed monorail and questioned whether it would transport the estimated 1,5-million people a day and whether it would cost government anything.

"As far as we are concerned, the procedure has been highly irregular we don't see how we will be able to approve a project like this whose details we do not know. We also do not know how much it is going to cost other than what we read in the newspapers which says that it will cost government nothing and as I know there is never a free lunch," he said.

Radebe said that it was against the law for any private consortium to build a railway line for passenger transport as only the South African commuter rail corporation has the right to transport passenger via rail in South Africa.
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And there is the reason why we don't have public transport. Government is controlling everything to death.
 
It is just so dumb. Why not just change the law? Instead, it's "oh, no, the law does not allow that.", even if the whole development would be good for the province.
 
Why can't the SA commuter rail coporation build rail systems then? Enough with the useless political bickering already, just get down to business for crying out loud. This coming from the ministry that promised to recapitalise the taxi industry a decade ago and still hasn't is very laughable. They should just let the private sectore take over. Maybe we'll see some decent means of transport for a change....
 
This is why there is no decent change from big outside companies. Cause government want their share and want to control what they do. So one of two things happened: 1.) The company gets the go ahead to do the thing but its so controlled that its crap anyway (and expensive to pay all the gravy) or 2.) The big company wont consult the idiots (like this malasian guys) and in the end nothing happens.

I personaly thought the railway was an awesome idea but NOOOOO, cock it up you lamos... i swear!
 
"As far as we are concerned, the procedure has been highly irregular we don't see how we will be able to approve a project like this whose details we do not know. We also do not know how much it is going to cost other than what we read in the newspapers which says that it will cost government nothing and as I know there is never a free lunch," he said.
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When did the government officials start caring about correct procedure?

"there is never a free lunch" People who say that, in this manner, is like a parrot vomiting out nonsense. He heard it somewhere and thinks it sounds smart to repeat it.

Give us the facts, such a nonsense statements pisses me off.
 
Obviously the lunch is not free. The private company expects to make money from the people using the service, and probably advertisement revenue, etc.

It is not going to cost government anything, as they would not be involved. Maybe the issue is not that government is not involved, but they want to be involved for the usual "skimming from the top" reasons.
 
For once I agree with the Guvament ... this whole monorail plan sounds fishy to me especially the sources of funding for such a huge project. I also think it is the best solution for Soweto...extending the gautrain is a far better solution for the volumes of passengers we are talking about.
 
telkomsuig said:
For once I agree with the Guvament ... this whole monorail plan sounds fishy to me especially the sources of funding for such a huge project. I also think it is the best solution for Soweto...extending the gautrain is a far better solution for the volumes of passengers we are talking about.
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Traffic and transportation is HUGE F'''ING PROBLEM in SA. I applaud any individual or company who are seeking a viable solution, because the planned 'solutions' by the government are largely pathetic and non-existent. It's the reason why there is such a HUGE PROBLEM.
 
telkomsuig said:
I also think it is the best solution for Soweto...
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I also DON'T think it is the best solution ( ? ).



If so, I agree. Put the monorail system by the wealthy suburbs and extend the train to the areas where the poorer people rely more on public transport.
A monorail from Fourways to Sandton for example would do VERY well if it was reliable.
 
It might not be a bad idea but what would the ticket prices end up being relative to current taxi fares? If its more expensive its unlikely to be popular.
 
Syndyre said:
It might not be a bad idea but what would the ticket prices end up being relative to current taxi fares? If its more expensive its unlikely to be popular.
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My 2c. Trains buses etc should be FREE. Yes, you heard correct.
Then, each station has shops, offices etc that are PAID for and they get charged for the privilege of being close to that many commuters.
In other words, the businesses subsidise the transport, and in turn they get exposure.

I would love to see an economic feailibilty done on this (and would prefer not to be flamed, but hey, I am a big boy).

The bonus is that we can do away with all the policing of tickets, selling of tickets and so on.
 
It could be free and then there could be a charge for train surfing on the monorail... extreme sports tsotsi style... :)
 
Moederloos said:
My 2c. Trains buses etc should be FREE. Yes, you heard correct.
Then, each station has shops, offices etc that are PAID for and they get charged for the privilege of being close to that many commuters.
In other words, the businesses subsidise the transport, and in turn they get exposure.

I would love to see an economic feailibilty done on this (and would prefer not to be flamed, but hey, I am a big boy).

The bonus is that we can do away with all the policing of tickets, selling of tickets and so on.
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Interesting idea, problem is the mere fact that it is free would drastically increase usage and thereby increase costs and also bring in people that are less likely to spend money at the shops. Could definitely be used to subsidise ticket prices though.
 
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