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  • Gautrain passenger numbers should be investigated: DA

    Published on 08-08-2012 11:18 AM
    47 Comments Comments



    The new Transport Minister Ben Martins should urgently investigate the reasons why so few people use the Gautrain, it was reported on Wednesday.

    Democratic Alliance transport spokesman Ian Ollis MP, said the low usage meant taxpayers were having to pay nearly R300 million a year to the Gautrain's operators, Beeld reported.

    The government had provided a guarantee that it would pay the shortfall if the Gautrain's passenger requirements were not met.

    The Gautrain needed 110,000 passengers a day to break even, but was transporting only between 38,000 and 40,000 passengers a day.

    Ollis said the government's last payment to the Gautrain group was R330 million.

    "When one looks at the passenger figures, these payments can be expected to continue for many years to come," Ollis said.
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    Comments 47 Comments
    1. werfie's Avatar
      werfie - 08-08-2012, 04:38 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by Messugga View Post
      Why not just go to the Hatfield station? It's quite a bit closer to your neck of the woods?
      CBD is closer than Hatfield from PTA North.
    1. reactor_sa's Avatar
      reactor_sa - 08-08-2012, 06:01 PM
      1) Costs more than a taxi trip

      2) for those who can afford, the train is a serious detour from the destination
    1. intel8080's Avatar
      intel8080 - 08-08-2012, 10:12 PM
      I said right from tin begin: The Gautrain is a white elephant (or black for that matter). South Africans will subsidize it till the DA comes to power and retires it. Or until Jesus comes (depending for which side you are batting) WTF what are a few billions between friends (comrades)
    1. Guantanamo's Avatar
      Guantanamo - 08-08-2012, 11:40 PM
      It's quite simple, 90% of people still need a car to get to the station. Therefor once you are in your car already, you might as well just drive the rest of the way. If they expanded the route so that people could take a stroll from their houses in the 'burbs to the nearest station, hope on and get off at work the numbers would be huge.

      If they expanded the line (and I don't know Pretoria well so I will stick to Joburg) and had a station at say: Virgin Active Old Eds, The Wanderers, Linksfield Square, Cresta, Greenside, Eastgate, somewhere in Edenvale, Kempton Park, Bryanston, Morningside, Gallomanor, Fourways and Sunninghill you are now allowing people to walk to the station or it is close enough to get dropped off by a SO. You will find housewives in Bryanston heading down to Rosebank for coffee. Kids at school taking it and getting picked up by a school bus, businessmen going from meeting at Monte Casino to catching a flight to Cape Town. Right now we have a Gautrain line, we need a Gautrain network.

      If they expanded it to be the red, from the blue that it is at the moment... Pipe dream.
    1. evilstebunny's Avatar
      evilstebunny - 09-08-2012, 11:28 AM
      Didn't we predict this was going to happen?

      They should have built more hiways instead, but I suppose the tenders weren't as lucrative.
    1. DJ...'s Avatar
      DJ... - 09-08-2012, 11:53 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by evilstebunny View Post
      Didn't we predict this was going to happen?

      They should have built more hiways instead, but I suppose the tenders weren't as lucrative.
      No no no. This country needs a decent public transport system, especially in the largest city. Building more highways is not a long term solution. In fact it's not even a short term solution to mass transit...
    1. TheGuy's Avatar
      TheGuy - 09-08-2012, 11:57 AM
      I cannot believe people are still saying this is a white elephant. If you look during peak hours the buses and trains are busy, something like this is not going to be fully implemented in 2 years. Yes they need more feeder buses and the network needs to expand but if you look at what happened in London the landscape changed to incorporate travelling by trains. Businesses and shops positioned themselves to be walking distances from stations. People moved closer to areas with stations.

      Give it 20 years to mature before you start complaining like an idiot.

      What Gautrain can maybe do is give people a clear road map of how they are expanding so people can start to be excited about were its going and how it will affect them.
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