11 October 2007

COMMUTERS in Germiston and Boksburg have benefited from safer public transport with the investment of over R70 million in the area's bus services.

The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has replaced at least 65 old buses and the municipality hopes to get a further 22 new buses in the current financial year.

By 2009, the entire fleet will have been replaced by new buses, said Zweli Dlamini, spokesperson for the municipality.

Dlamini said the measures they had put in place had lead to a significant turn around in the operation of the public transport mode operated in the area.

There has been an improvement in the performance of the bus services resulting in higher revenues.

"The revenue collected in the 2006/7 financial year, almost exceeded the total of the previous two years together," said Dlamini.

The municipality also invested in cleaning equipment to ensure the fleet is cleaned regularly, which has resulted in fewer complaints from commuters, regarding cleanliness.

Electronic ticketing machines have also been implemented to provide the municipality with information such as the number of tickets sold and the number of passengers carried per bus trip among others.

Lourens Swanepoel, the Director of Public Transport within the Infrastructure Services Department said these improvements, coupled with the addition of bus inspectors has assisted the metro to clamp down on theft and helped bring the revenue up.

Swanepoel said deploying more inspectors on the routes and increasing the level of accountability among employees had lead to a more efficient and successful bus service.

The municipality is also planning to put additional seating capacity on its existing routes.

"The metro is currently exploring putting additional seating capacity on its existing routes with a long term vision of extending across municipal boundaries.

"The latter, however, will only happen after extensive consultation with the relevant stakeholders in the transport industry," said Dlamini.

"The municipality will continue to strive to provide a sustainable and quality bus service in the region.

"For us to encourage people to use public transport we should provide quality buses and lead by example. This way we can engage other stakeholders with confidence knowing that our house is in order."

Dlamini said they were trying to change the perception that buses and taxis were not in a good condition and unreliable because it was one of the reasons people did not consider public transport.

On 1 October, Gauteng's MEC for Transport Ignatius Jacobs launched the provincial leg of Transport Month.

To improve and promote public transport, the MEC said government's Taxi Recapitalisation Programme was successfully replacing old, unsafe minibus taxis with new and safer ones. Government has thus far scrapped over 10 000 old vehicles as part of the programme.

The MEC also cited the multi-billion rand Gautrain project as another initiative to improve public transport. Other initiatives include promoting the use of buses and lift clubs.

He said the use of public transport would also assist to reduce the air and noise pollution that was caused by high traffic volumes.

Through the initiative, government also aims to strengthen the link between awareness and policy measures in order to reduce traffic congestion by promoting the use of public transport.

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe also officially launched the Transport Month by unveiling a R535 million extension to the international tier at South Africa's busiest airport that will help deal with the growing air traffic flow, particularly ahead of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

Source: BuaNews