The growing prominence of the Gautrain project can be illustrated by the fact that the rapid-rail link - with construction ramping up sharply - has received some R200-million worth of free publicity over the last few years, says Gautrain Management Agency CEO Jack van der Merwe.

"We do around 900 interviews - on the television and in magazines and so forth - on the train each month."

The Gautrain, which will carry an estimated 300 000 passengers a day by 2011, will see a minimum of six trains an hour running in peak times between Johannesburg, Tshwane and the OR Tambo International Airport by 2011.

Here is a visual update of the R25,1-billion project, first conceptualised in the late 1990s.