The Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) would start feasibility studies on the 200 km of proposed extensions to the Gautrain route, as approved by the Gauteng government, in the next three months, said Gauteng Road and Transport MEC Dr Ismail Vadi on Thursday.

The extensions would include a link from the existing Gautrain Park Station to Westgate; a link from the existing Gautrain Rhodesfield Station to Boksburg; a link from the existing Gautrain Sandton Station to Randburg and Honeydew, and a link from Naledi, in Soweto, to Mamelodi, via either the proposed Gautrain Samrand Station, or the existing Gautrain Midrand Station.

This extension would include stations at Blue Hills, Sunninghill, Fourways, Cosmo City and Ruimsig.

Ultimately the plan was to have four Gautrain lines, adding to the Pretoria-Johannesburg, and Sandton-OR Tambo International Airport links.

GMA CEO Jack van der Merwe did not want to provide a cost estimate for the proposed extensions.

Other interventions in the next three months included the introduction of a seventh eight-car train (up from four cars) during the morning peak. The Gautrain airport service would also start 30 minutes earlier and end 35 minutes later.

The current starting time was 05:20, with the last service at 20:30.

Vadi said the Sandton Station parking terrain would also remain open until 00:00 at night, to accommodate passengers affected by delayed flights.

He said all of these enhancements were necessary as the Gautrain continued to see a steep increase in ridership on the back of rising fuel costs and the recent introduction of etolling.

Friday saw an all-time record for the Gautrain, with 62 500 passengers making use of the train, up from 49 000 passengers as recently as November last year, said Van der Merwe. Bus ridership currently ran at 23 000 passengers a day.

“The system is under pressure during peak hours,” noted Vadi. “There is quite a bit of overcrowding on some lines. We see ridership increases almost on a daily basis.”

Van der Merwe was hopeful the increase in ridership would see the current subsidy of between R850-million to R900-million a year, payable to system operator Bombela, decrease sharply in the next financial year.

MORE CAPACITY ENHANCEMENTS PLANNED

Capacity enhancements on the Gautrain system in the next six to nine months included reconfigured seating on the Pretoria-Johannesburg line. This included a pilot study to determine efficiency and customer acceptance of cars with more seats.

The GMA would also reduce the headway between trains from 12 minutes to ten minutes, meaning one more train would run every hour during peak periods.

The agency would also complete the investigation on a special, quick-turnaround service on the system’s busiest route, between the Sandton and Centurion stations.

System enhancements in the next 12 to 24 months would include providing additional parking at Pretoria Station. This was, however, dependent on environmental-impact and traffic-impact assessments.

Centurion Station was to receive an additional 1 000 parking bays.

The OR Tambo International Station would be lengthened to allow for four-and-a-half carriages to open on the platform, up from two and a half.

The business case would be developed for the purchase of new rolling stock to further increase capacity.

Van der Merwe said the Gautrain would investigate using the same type of rail cars as those units to be built locally for the multibillion-rand Metrorail upgrade.

“They are excellent quality and safe.”

The environmental impact assessment for the Gautrain route extensions would also start during the next 12 to 24 months.

Gautrain system enhancements more than two years out included securing the funds from government for the proposed route extensions.

Van der Merwe said, as a cost illustration, that a train travelling on the ground cost R1, a train in the air R10, and a train underground R100.

He also noted that extending the Gautrain’s operating hours to late at night was not immediately on the cards, as it would affect the maintenance regime negatively, while also increasing costs substantially.

However, on March 1 the system operated late into the night, spurred on by several late-night, big ticket events in and around Gauteng.

Van der Merwe said 17 500 passengers made use of the Gautrain that night, with “fare box earnings higher than the costs incurred”.

“There is a business case for this, we are looking at extending the operating hours, but it will cost money.”

Van der Merwe added that it would perhaps be necessary for government to make “a leap of faith”, with extended operating hours not immediately profitable, but becoming so in a relatively short period of time.

Commenting on the current regime of load-shedding, Van der Merwe said that while the trains could still operate during power outages, the stations would be affected negatively. He believed the impact on Gautrain commuters
would not be more adverse than being stuck in traffic owing to dead traffic lights.