‘Serious questions’ need to be asked about poor BRT ridership
South Africa, as a country, has to ask itself some “serious questions” about bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, says Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Dr Ismail Vadi.
He says that the three BRT systems in Gauteng – in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni – built at a collective cost of around R10-billion, transport roughly 75 000 people a day, with around 65 000 of these people in Johannesburg alone.
“Ridership is not great.”
When looking at the whole of South Africa, Vadi says, the figures are probably closer to an investment of R15-billion to transport 120 000 people a day.
He says it is necessary to question whether government is “getting value for money” in building BRT systems, whether it is necessary to build “big, expensive, median bus stations”, and whether it is necessary to make use of expensive, big-brand buses.
“Is this the way to go? Is this cost effective?”
He also questions the fact that purchased bus fleets are standing idle while issues such as community and taxi dissatisfaction remain at the negotiation table.
Vadi says it has become necessary to “look at reducing the cost of BRT systems and to pick up ridership”.
Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi echoes Vadi’s sentiments, acknowledging that there “are challenges with BRT systems” in South Africa.
He says it is perhaps necessary to “rethink and redesign” BRT systems so that they can stop “draining money from the fiscus”.
“Commuters are not using them. “They are resorting to the same taxis they are complaining about.
“If we need to scale them down, we’ll do that.”
•Vadi and Maswanganyi spoke at the Southern African Transport Conference, held in Pretoria earlier this month.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation