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Focus to fall on City Deep, Tambo Springs – MEC

30th May 2013

By: Idéle Esterhuizen

  

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In the current financial year, the Gauteng Roads and Transport Department would focus its attention on the City Deep freight terminal and to further planning for the Tambo Springs inland port, Gauteng MEC for Roads and Public Transport Ismail Vadi said on Thursday.

The Tambo Springs next-generation inland port would be built near the N3 highway, in Gauteng, to accommodate the increasing demand for freight and other logistics services in the province.

Delivering his department’s R4.7-billion Budget Vote, Vadi stated that Phase 1 of the City Deep/Kazerne terminal expansion and roads upgrade was progressing well.

“Work on the widening of Rosherville road and proclaiming it as a one-way road is completed and more detailed planning for the expansion of the road network surrounding the terminal is already in progress,” he said.

He indicated that the Gauteng Roads and Transport Department had allocated R122-million for the roadworks and that Transnet would invest a further R900-million in upgrading the terminal and the railway sidings.

“Together with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa [Prasa], the department will develop five intermodal facilities at the Germiston, Roodepoort, Vereeniging, Leratong and Pienaarspoort stations. These intermodal facilities, designed to link train stations with taxi and bus ranks, are to be constructed in partnership with Prasa and the respective municipalities,” Vadi said.

He added that the facilities would be linked to Prasa’s rail corridor modernisation plans and that the Roodepoort, Vereeniging and Germiston station precincts had been identified as core stations to be upgraded.

Meanwhile, the Gautrain system was provided with R801-million for the 2013/14 financial year, with the provincial treasury having underwritten an additional R623-million for the ridership guarantee.

“Gautrain has become a yardstick of public transport in the province. Since the opening of Park Station, in Johannesburg, last year, there has been a dramatic increase in the demand for the Gautrain and its bus services,” the MEC stated.

The average weekday passenger trips on the train increased from 26 000 in April 2012 to 42 000 in March this year, while the average weekday passenger trips on the general passenger service grew by over 60% over the same period with more than 11-million passengers using the train.

Vadi said the Gautrain Management Agency would undertake short-term interventions to increase parking availability and to improve traffic flow and access to and from stations. An additional 103 parking bays were added at the Rhodesfield station and plans had been developed for the construction of another 156 parking bays at the station.

Further, negotiations were at an advanced stage to develop a new station at the Heartlands development, in Modderfontein.

The MEC further indicated that nearly 50% of the total budget allocated to his department comprised conditional grants from the national Department of Transport to subsidise 34 bus contracts and carry out provincial road maintenance programmes as part of the S’hamba Sonke programme.

Meanwhile, Vadi indicated that his department’s 25-year Integrated Transport Master Plan would be released for public comment in July, which would layout the department’s strategic orientation for the medium term.

He added that the Gauteng Roads and Transport Department would also, later this year, launch the Gauteng Transport Commission to better plan, coordinate and direct various programmes that fall within the ambit of its strategic goals, which included the construction of roads; the development of key freight corridors; the revitalisation of the passenger rail system; the construction of a bus rapid network; and the development of an aerotropolis, besides others.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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