Photo by: Duane Daws
Construction on Line 2B of Pretoria’s A Re Yeng bus-rapid transit (BRT) system would start in August, while construction on Line 2C would start in November, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters has revealed.
Line 2B will run between Hatfield and Menlyn and Line 2C between Menlyn and Denneboom, in Mamelodi.
In a written Parliamentary reply to the Democratic Alliance’s Manny de Freitas, Peters revealed that construction on the two lines would be completed by June 2017.
The Line 2B route would be about 7 km long and operated along Lynwood road, from Loftus Versfeld station in Hatfield. It further proceeded east through Hillcrest until turning right at Atterbury road towards Menlyn and intersecting with Lois avenue.
Extending from Menlyn to Denneboom station, through January Masilela road, Lynnwood road and Simon Vermooten road, Line 2C would be 11 km long.
The R2.6-billion BRT system would extend from Kopanong in Soshanguve, through the Rainbow Junction, through the central business district (CBD) and continue to Menlyn, with a branch line to Hatfield, ending in Mamelodi.
The first stage of the A Re Yeng operations was the Inception phase, also 7 km long. It extended from the CBD in the west, to Hatfield in the east, through Sunnyside and connected to the Gautrain station in Hatfield.
There were seven stations along the route, two in the CBD, three in Sunnyside, one at Loftus Versfeld and one in Hatfield.
Once completed, the system would comprise 80 km of bus lines and 62 stations. The buses ran from 05:00 until 00:00 at two to four minute intervals during peak periods, and seven to ten minutes during off-peak periods.
Pretoria was the fourth city in South Africa with a BRT system, joining the City of Johannesburg, the City of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.