Gautrain's plan to fix decline

I doubt that they will get people from Soweto and Mamelodi to actually use the train if they ever expand the service. People will ALWAYS use the cheapest form of transport. Why pay R99 for a trip to Sandton if you can pay R50 for a taxi.
The taxi ass will also burn the stations down, like they do with busses if the Gautrain actually takes their customers
 
Went_For_Beer said:
I doubt that they will get people from Soweto and Mamelodi to actually use the train if they ever expand the service. People will ALWAYS use the cheapest form of transport. Why pay R99 for a trip to Sandton if you can pay R50 for a taxi.
The taxi ass will also burn the stations down, like they do with busses if the Gautrain actually takes their customers
Click to expand...

The demographic the Gautrain goes for is in part (my guess) to not infringe on the taxi market segment. In fact if everything goes well it will only benefit the meter taxis if they pull their socks up and get a nice app up and running. They already get to be the only people that are allowed to pick up at the Gautrain pick up points.

Soweto and Mamelodi have a big middle class that would use the Gautrain if it was accessible.
 
Went_For_Beer said:
I doubt that they will get people from Soweto and Mamelodi to actually use the train if they ever expand the service. People will ALWAYS use the cheapest form of transport. Why pay R99 for a trip to Sandton if you can pay R50 for a taxi.
The taxi ass will also burn the stations down, like they do with busses if the Gautrain actually takes their customers
Click to expand...
You need to understand that every urban place in SA has fair share of middle class and rich people, the people who are clogging the N1 to Pretoria are professionals from Soweto going to work in Centurion or Midrand. The train will also not only be for the exclusive use of residents of Soweto or Mamelodi, anyone who wants to go there can use it. E hailing is also expensive but there are people who use it instead of the usual minibus taxis.
 
Prior to the COVID pandemic, the Gautrain North-South line was absolutely packed - the Centurion station had to build overflow parking opposite the sizeable parking lot due to the large volumes of commuters. I used the train pretty much on a daily basis since 2011 from PTA -> JHB and the experience was nothing short of excellent. 2016 onwards felt like the numbers were booming and you didn't really get a seated spot on the 4-car train during the peak hour.

COVID + WFH absolutely wrecked the number of commuters although you wouldn't say that when looking at the N1/N3/M1 highways every day.
 
Mista_Mobsta said:
Prior to the COVID pandemic, the Gautrain North-South line was absolutely packed - the Centurion station had to build overflow parking opposite the sizeable parking lot due to the large volumes of commuters. I used the train pretty much on a daily basis since 2011 from PTA -> JHB and the experience was nothing short of excellent. 2016 onwards felt like the numbers were booming and you didn't really get a seated spot on the 4-car train during the peak hour.

COVID + WFH absolutely wrecked the number of commuters although you wouldn't say that when looking at the N1/N3/M1 highways every day.
Click to expand...
The N1 is totally ungovernable these days, no idea what happened because the economy is supposed to be under pressure with no jobs.
 
TheChamp said:
The N1 is totally ungovernable these days, no idea what happened because the economy is supposed to be under pressure with no jobs.
Click to expand...
Agreed - might be the amount of traffic lights at the various offramps that simply don't function most of the time. That being said, listening to the traffic report on the radio every morning, you always hear of accidents N1 South/North and N3 South!
 
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