GAUTRAIN – Celebrating ten years of a state-of-the-art public transport rapid rail system

31st July 2020

     

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It has been ten successful years since rail transport in South Africa entered a new era with Bombela Concession Company’s opening of the Gautrain rapid rail project in June 2010 – ahead of the planned schedule to accommodate the Soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa.

With ambitions of seamlessly linking travellers across South Africa’s economic powerhouse, the Gautrain now connects Gauteng’s three major metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Ekurhuleni with an integrated public transport system that has steadily expanded to ten stations operating along 80 km of route alignment.

Emerging as just a concept more than a decade ago, Bombela was appointed by the Gauteng Provincial Government to design, build and partially finance the Gautrain rapid rail system, with a 15-year operating and maintenance period that commenced after construction in 2011.

“This was a momentous time for the company and the teams who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that Gautrain could operate in time for the Soccer World Cup,” says Bombela CEO André van Rensburg.

Today, their mission and goal remains the provision of an efficient, reliable and safe integrated transport system to Gautrain users while empowering the lives of South Africans and contributing to the growth of Gauteng’s – and South Africa’s – economy.

“I am extremely proud of what we have achieved to date and Bombela’s performance from a train availability and punctuality perspective, as well as from a safety and security perspective, speak for itself,” he says.

Customers First

Offering international standards of public transport with high levels of safety, cleanliness, reliability, predictability and comfort, Gautrain has become one of the most reliable commuter train services in the world, with an average train service availability of 99.19% and an average punctuality of 98.48%.

Travelling at a maximum of 160 km per hour, Gautrain connects Hatfield station with Johannesburg Park station in about 42 minutes, and Sandton station with 
OR Tambo International Airport in less than 15 minutes.

Since the start of the service, the Gautrain has had over 160-million pass-enger entries at its stations.

With safety a top priority, various mea-sures, including high-technology cameras and security guards at all stations, are in place to ensure the well-being of passengers and securing the Gautrain infrastructure.

Alongside this, the project continues to innovate with the introduction of the contactless bank card payment solution last year to pay for any of the train, parking and bus services.

This allows passengers to tap in and out of the system using their credit, debit and cheque cards, as well as National Department of Transport travel cards, as an alternate to their Gautrain contactless cards.

Economic Impact

The Gautrain project has already made a significant contribution to the South African economy in terms of revenue, infrastructure development and job creation, van Rensburg highlights.

Gautrain has contributed billions of rands to the Gauteng economy’s gross domestic product and has created over 100 000 sustained jobs, including 35 000 direct jobs during construction.

Further, Bombela and its contractors have spent over R128-million to improve employee skill levels during the con-struction phase, while over 5 000 months of training were provided to women, he adds.

The day-to-day operations have also translated into increased jobs and training, with the creation of nearly 
11 000 jobs and about R59-million spent on training and skills development for operational staff.

As one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country to date, Gautrain remains an ideal opportunity to promote economic development.

Further, for every person that uses the Gautrain instead of a private vehicle, R74 of economic benefit has been derived.

“Gautrain has played a significant role in terms of easing traffic congestion in the province of Gauteng,” says van Rensburg, highlighting studies showing that trips during the peak hours on main highways take 70% longer than during the off-peak period.

Community Support

Bombela has met – and exceeded – its socioeconomic development (SED) obligations with enabling and supportive transformation initiatives.

In addition to job creation and eco-nomic impact, the Gautrain’s broad-based SED strategy focuses on local skills development and capacity building.

Beyond this, in recent times, Bombela implemented special initiatives to assist communities affected by Covid-19 pandemic.

The company, through a 33.3% con-tribution from executives’ salaries and some members of the organisation, donated funds to the Solidary Fund over a three-month period.

It also donated food parcels and reusable face masks worth R1-million to about 1 400 destitute families in various Gauteng communities.

The group is collaborating with the Gift of the Givers to procure stock for the hampers and to distribute to underprivileged communities, including informal settlements.

From keeping a firm hand on its socio-economic development obligations through to ensuring that it has a truly diverse team, the group remains committed to social transformation in Gauteng.

It is Bombela’s continued vision to provide not only a world-class transport system to Gauteng, but also to help reduce South Africa’s carbon emissions, thereby rendering South Africa greener, safer, more connected and more efficient as a nation, van Rensburg concludes.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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