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Stations going up for Phase 1B
- Details
- 26 October 2011
Talks are being held with affected parties regarding Phase 1B, which will link Soweto with the northern suburbs of Joburg, passing the universities of Johannesburg and Witwatersrand.
PEOPLE who work in Joburg's northern parts but live down south will no longer need to take multiple trips to their jobs once Rea Vaya Phase 1B is introduced, expected in mid-2012.
Only one trip will get commuters from their homes in Soweto to the north, where many of them work or study. When it finally starts operating, Phase 1B will pass the universities of Johannesburg and Witwatersrand on its way through to Parktown.
The completed route will be 18 kilometres long with 10 stations, many of which are almost finished.
Phase 1B starts in Noordgesig and travels through Pennyville and New Canada, along Highgate Road, Stanley, Kingsway and Empire Road, to Parktown and up to the Metro Centre in Braamfontein, and along Rissik Street. It joins Phase 1A in downtown Joburg.
The route covers suburbs in Soweto, as well as Richmond, Melville, Westbury, Riverlea, Bosmont, Brixton, Coronationville, New Canada, Pennyville, Crosby, Newclare and Noordgesig.
Unlike Phase 1A, Phase 1B will affect more than the taxi industry, as it will be running on the route used by Putco, the City's Metrobus, other small private bus companies, and the taxi industry.
The City is aware of this impact and is in talks with representatives from Greater Johannesburg Regional Taxi Council, Top Six Management, Putco, Metrobus and small bus operators.
"Independent technical support for the potentially affected operators has been secured to assist them in the process," explained the Rea Vaya project manager, Jacques Van Zijl. "Once we have determined who is affected and the extent, a negotiation team can be set up to negotiate the bus operating company."
Speaking to reporters on Monday, 26 September, the City's portfolio head of transport, Rehana Moosajee, said that although construction of the phase was going well, there were other issues that might lead to the delay of implementation next year.
"BRT is not only about transport. We cannot import buses all the time," she said. "We are looking at locally manufactured and produced buses. This process might have an impact on the date of the implementation."
In the same way that Phase 1A is run by a private bus operating company, PioTrans, Phase 1B will also have a bus company running its operations. The company will have ownership of all the 134 buses used on the route, and employ its own drivers from all the affected companies.
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