South Africa to revamp transport infrastructure

South Africa is to invest over US$6.5 billion in the country’s transport infrastructure in a bid to reduce road deaths. Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said that commuter rail infrastructure, identified as the safest mode of transport, will receive the lion’s share of the allocation as her ministry pushes to shift passengers from cars to into railway stations. To achieve this target, Peters said US$5.1 billion will be spent on commuter rail infrastructure and new rolling stock over the next three years.
August 26, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

South Africa is to invest over US$6.5 billion in the country’s transport infrastructure in a bid to reduce road deaths.

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said that commuter rail infrastructure, identified as the safest mode of transport, will receive the lion’s share of the allocation as her ministry pushes to shift passengers from cars to into railway stations. To achieve this target, Peters said US$5.1 billion will be spent on commuter rail infrastructure and new rolling stock over the next three years.

A further US$1.4 billion will be channelled towards bus subsidies in the 2014/15 financial year to encourage a shift from private cars to public transport such as rail cars, thereby reducing road traffic.

The programme will see a total of US$93 million spent during the 2014/15 financial year, and a further US$99 million in the 2015/16 financial year to upgrade the ageing road infrastructure to ensure quality and safer roads, the minister said.

Related Content

  • January 3, 2013
    UK railways to benefit from information upgrade
    More than US$13.44 million funding will be spent by train companies to boost passenger information at stations across the UK. The funding will pay for a national roll-out to link customer information screens at stations to the latest live real time train information data, fed from a database developed and maintained by train companies. The upgrade will be rolled out in around 2,000 National Rail stations. The first stations will be switched on in summer 2014 and the whole project is anticipated to be comp
    Read More
  • July 26, 2013
    Qatar invests $70 billion to pave the way to world beating transportation
    Eng. Zeina Nazer looks at what Qatar’s recently-announced investment in transport infrastructure will mean on the ground. Qatar is experiencing a rapid economic and industrial growth. This growth is characterised by a rapid population increase and by the urgent need towards the development of both infrastructure projects and major transport projects. In order to handle this rate of development within Qatar, Public Works Authority (Ashghal) is developing a fully-integrated multimodal transportation system in
    Read More
  • December 13, 2013
    Successful start of e-tolling in South Africa
    This month saw the start of e-tolling on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) in South Africa, one of the largest electronic toll collection systems for open road tolling in the world, following an announcement by the country’s Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, in November. Kapsch TrafficCom reports that the number of active accounts has been consistently rising following the commencement of the e-toll project in Gauteng, on 3 December. Kapsch anticipates that this trend will continue. Kapsc
    Read More
  • October 30, 2013
    HS2 ‘crucial to Britain’s future transport needs’
    Britain cannot meet its future transport needs without HS2, according to new evidence published by the government. Even with over US$80 billion of planned transport investment over the next six years the country’s railways will be overwhelmed. The strategic case for HS2 sets out in detail the need for a new railway line to provide the vitally needed extra capacity. Central to the case is new data that reveals the true extent of the crisis facing the UK rail network and the impact alternatives to buildin
    Read More

Highlighted Content