South Africa to upgrade public transport

Speaking at the launch of South Africa’s 2013 Transport Month, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters pledged to spend more than US$500 million on planning, building and operating integrated public transport networks in more than thirteen cities in the country. The major cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town have already constructed over 20 kilometres of dedicated bus lanes. Both cities will expand operations to carry up to 100 thousand passengers a day on each system, while the bus rapid transport system in Joh
October 2, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Speaking at the launch of South Africa’s 2013 Transport Month, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters pledged to spend more than US$500 million on planning, building and operating integrated public transport networks in more than thirteen cities in the country.

The major cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town have already constructed over 20 kilometres of dedicated bus lanes. Both cities will expand operations to carry up to 100 thousand passengers a day on each system, while the bus rapid transport system in Johannesburg is also set to expand. A second phase is to open in the next two weeks, providing a link between hospitals, universities and sports facilities in the city.

"One of the instruments that we are looking at is the intermodal automated ticketing system that would then allow for integration of the different transport and networks," said the transport minister.

Peters praised the country’s road network, but admitted that maintenance of the roads does not come cheap, saying the country needs to spend US$2.9 million a year on just maintaining them, but at the moment can only spend US$2.9 million on both maintenance and new construction

The minister also said that from 2015, the government will be looking at upgrading passenger trains through the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), and US$1.2 million will also be pumped into rehabilitating coaches and the signalling system.

Related Content

  • Authorities look to MaaS for new solutions and cost savings
    July 18, 2017
    The structure of society and the way in which our cities work will be completely transformed by Mobility as a Service (MaaS), Finland’s minister of transport and communications Anne Berner, told ITS International’s recent MaaS Market conference 2017 in London. In her keynote address, Berner told a packed audience of more than 200 ITS professionals that MaaS has the potential to help governments around the world meet their big city targets such as the rate of employment, the environment, the efficient use of
    Read More
  • Connected vehicles take modern spin on an old classic
    February 13, 2024
    How do we transition the millions of vehicles on the world’s road to a connected and - one day - automated future? Andy Graham of White Willow Consulting highlights an intriguing pilot which sought to make some of the UK’s oldest vehicles connected – using just a phone
    Read More
  • Israel aspires to ITS-led future
    May 29, 2013
    Shay Soffer, Chief Scientist with the Israel National Road Safety Authority, talks to Jason Barnes about his country’s current ITS outlook and how he sees this developing in the future. Israel ranks alongside countries such as the US and France in the road safety stakes, with an average 7.1 deaths per billion kilometres driven. But at that point the similarities end, as the country’s overriding issue is pedestrian safety. This is driven by several factors, including being a relatively small country where pe
    Read More
  • Boost efforts to develop intermodal ticketing, say Transport MEPs
    May 29, 2015
    Transport services providers and providers of journey planners should build on existing synergies and cooperate more closely on providing multimodal, cross-border journey planners, European Commission transport MEPs said. They are calling on the Commission to take the measures necessary to support and facilitate the efforts being made on development of intermodal ticketing.
    Read More

Highlighted Content