World Cup was only round one

{writer: Piet Coetzer}

Hosting the Fifa Soccer World Cup this year has already seen South Africa’s transport infrastructure receiving a big shot in the arm – particularly in the metropolitan areas around the host cities. The job of creating a world-class transport network, however, is far from done; and the next big push in that direction seems to be at hand with another Transport Month in October around the corner.

The Transport Month campaign is an annual feature on the calendar of the Department of Transport and is one of the platforms and vehicles through which the department engages directly with its stakeholders.

On its website, the department last year wrote: “An effective transport system has a significant impact on both the economic and social fabric of our country. It influences the economy in many ways, through its impact on the efficiency of business operations and labour mobility and, for its citizens, the attractiveness of South Africa as a place in which to live and prosper.”

Transport Month was first launched in October 2005. It seeks to raise awareness of the important role of transport in the economy, and to invite participation from civic society and business in providing a safer, more affordable, accessible and reliable transport system for the country.

Among the specific objectives of Transport Month are to:

• make people aware of the role of transport in growing and developing our economy, and its importance to our citizens in their everyday lives;

• highlight important challenges in building an effective, safe, affordable, accessible and reliable transport system;

• promote the use of public transport in order to reduce traffic congestion; and

• promote a greater awareness of road safety behaviour for users of vehicles as well as for pedestrians.

Chinese involvement

One of the most recent highlights of that which lies ahead for South Africa on the transport front, came in August during the official visit by President Jacob Zuma and a large public-private sector delegation to the People’s Republic of China.

It was announced that talks have commenced between the South African government and the China Railway Group about the feasibility of a project to build a R220-billion high-speed rail link between Johannesburg and Durban.

If the joint venture goes ahead, it will not only alleviate pressure on the country’s busiest transport corridor, but it will bring China’s advanced technological expertise on this front to South Africa.

Chinese involvement would assist South Africa to integrate economic development through infrastructure development – something the Chinese have succeeded in doing through a significant rollout of high-speed trains.

China presently operates a rail network of 86 000 kilometres, of which 7 000km are utilised for high-speed trains services.

South Africa, on the other hand, operates a rail network of 20 000km, of which only the 30km used for the Gautrain are suitable for a rapid rail system.

Not much detail is known at this stage about the Durban–Johannesburg project, which is said to accommodate train speeds of up to 350km per hour.

Bloomberg, however, reported that the Chinese will expect South Africa to make 40% of the required capital available.

Private sector involvement

It was reported that the group chief executive officer of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) Lucky Montana said it would be a good idea if the government tackled the project as a public-private partnership similar to the Gautrain project.

Prasa is responsible for the feasibility study for the project, which is expected to start in the near future.

The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), whose members presently do some substantial business on the long-haul Durban–Johannesburg route, has already indicated it would be interested to become involved with such a project.

Santaco general-secretary Philip Taaibosch reportedly said his organisation would not be opposed to the project, provided the industry were engaged.

Indicative of the changing transport environment in the country, he said: “With the diversification programme within Santaco, we are very open to discussions to see how we can participate in programmes of this nature that will benefit taxi operators who use long-
haul routes.”

The recent history of the rollout of bus rapid transit (BRT) systems in most metropolitan areas has shown that since their very existence could be at stake, taxi operators could become a serious disrupting force during the implementation of new transport modes.

According to Taaibosch, the reason for the taxi industry’s negative response to the BRT system was that the industry was not approached in a way that allowed it to play a pivotal role in the discussion.

After the World Cup

While construction work on the expansion and upgrading of road networks in metropolitan areas such as Cape Town was suspended for the duration of the World Cup, work is back in full swing; and in both Cape Town and Gauteng, daily road commuters are starting to experience a degree of relief in congestion at some traffic hot spots.

The financing of the road upgrades and other transport infrastructure, however, remains a huge headache for authorities.

In Cape Town, the MyCiTi service ran into huge budgetary problems and overruns. It recently came to light that another massive R3.1bn would be required to complete the project.

This prompted the Cape Chamber of Commerce to call on the metropolitan council of the City of Cape Town to urgently make available a detailed summary of the costs incorporated in all elements of the BRT project. While the Chamber welcomed the project, it had several serious concerns about the City’s chosen model and associated risk factors.

The project is now targeted for completion of the first phase by September 2013. The estimated total capital cost of the project is R4.6bn.

In the interim, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) in August sold R858 million of 14-year and 25-year bonds to help fund toll road construction. The securities were sold on 20 August in a private placement, said the Johannesburg-based lender Standard Bank Groups Ltd in a statement.

The sale “is a good indication of long-term investor support for infrastructure development in South Africa,” said Andrew Costa, head of debt capital markets at Standard Bank (Africa’s largest lender), in the statement.

Open-road tolling

Gauteng announced plans for an open-road tolling (ORT) system, due to be introduced early in 2011. It will work similarly to a prepaid cellphone contract.

According to Sanral’s senior project manager Alex van Niekerk, drivers and vehicle owners using the soon-to-be-tolled 185-kilometre freeway network in Gauteng will be encouraged to set up prepaid accounts and acquire new transponder-based identification tags that will mount inside a vehicle’s windscreen.

Having the majority of vehicles in the tolled network equipped with ID tags will facilitate payments, and Sanral will sweeten the deal by offering toll-road users with ID tags discounts in terms of frequent use as well as time-of-day and date specials.

The proposed toll is set at 50c/km, but inflation could affect this figure in the future.

Public transport vehicles such as buses and taxis will get special lanes reserved for vehicles with three or more occupants, and will receive discounts on fees.

According to Sanral, the revenue collected will be used to expand and improve the Gauteng province’s existing freeway network under the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.

The estimated cost of the ORT system, at this first stage, is R15.1bn.

Distribution of the new ID tags will follow a similar concept to cellphone SIM card starter packs and will be available from a wide variety of retail outlets as well as “point of presence” customer centres placed along the tolled routes, in addition to 16 permanent kiosks positioned at popular shopping centres in Gauteng.

Like a SIM card, the ID tag acquisition process will be once-off. Credits can then be uploaded onto the tag via the project website or by phoning in to the call centre.

Getting them off the roads

An important part of creating a more efficient transport environment – in particularly the metropolitan areas – has for some time been to persuade motorists to move off the roads onto public transport networks.

While it would take another few years before services such as BRT systems and completion of the Gautrain service in the Johannesburg/Tshwane area will have a comprehensive impact on travel patterns, commuter trains can – and have – an important contribution to make.

Particularly in the Cape Town peninsula, trains have long been an important mode of transport for daily commuters. Presently, 83 trains move an estimated 350 000 passengers every weekday.

In recent times, the ageing network and rolling stock have come increasingly under pressure to keep up with the needs of the city. This prompted Western Cape Transport MEC Robin Carlisle to state that “if Metrorail goes, the city goes with it”.

A strategy to try to improve the rail service in the City of Cape Town was taken at a mini-summit in August between Prasa’s Montana, acting regional manager for Metrorail Lindelo Matya, and MEC Carlisle.

The strategy includes:

• Increasing the train complement from 83 train sets to 92 sets, by sending trains to the Western Cape;

• Re-deploying coaches from elsewhere in the province for use on the packed Khayelitsha–Mitchells Plain line;

• Improved services to the Southern Peninsula; and

• The possibility to rent trains from abroad to eventually have 108 train sets available.