African delegates check Rea Vaya

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18 October 2012

JOBURG’s BRT has got high praise from delegates to the second Congress and Exhibition of Public Transport in Africa, who believe similar systems could resolve congestion in other African cities.

Charles Blok, Rea Vaya’s infrastructure director addressing the delegates.

INTERNATIONAL delegates gave their approval to the Rea Vaya system, saying they believed it could resolve transport problems in their countries.

The group was in town for the second Congress and Exhibition of Public Transport in Africa. Hosted by the Gauteng department of roads and transport, the gathering was held under the umbrella of the African chapter of the International Association of Public Transport (UATP).

The theme of the conference, which ended on 11 October, was: “BRT as a solution for sustainable mobility”. It was held as a means of sharing ideas and experiences of Bus Rapid Transit systems.

On the final day of the gathering, a group of delegates consisting mostly of Senegalese, Kenyans, Ethiopians, Ugandans and Nigerians, were taken to Soweto to learn more about how Rea Vaya operated. Charles Blok, Rea Vaya’s infrastructure director, met them at Thokoza Station, where he spoke to them about the station design.

“The stations are essentially made of concrete, steel and glass and it takes between six and eight weeks to construct a single station,” said Blok. The visitors were in awe of the stations and asked questions about the cost and time of building the stations.

Blok also told the visitors “The stations are designed to utilise natural light and ventilation,”.

Blok explained that Rea Vaya stations were automated and were able to sense the type of bus which was docking at the station. “The whole system is run by electricity, but there are back-up systems which are sufficient to cover the operations in the event of a power failure Back-up systems on the stations include solar panels and, batteries, In addition, diesel generators can be brought in, should the need arise, Blok said.

“Each module can accommodate four buses at a time and it takes 20 seconds to load a bus with passengers,” he said, adding that the station designs were unique and modular making it easy for maintenance.  

Dobsonville depot

From Thokoza Park, the delegation went to Rea Vaya’s Dobsonville depot in the residential area of Meadowlands. Here they were shown around the new administration building. It has offices, a despatch area, a boardroom, a lecture room, administration buildings, a gym and a catering area.

Construction began in October 2011 and the administration building was completed a few days ago. The depot, which sits on a 60 000m2 site, can house 270 buses.

It was built with energy conservation in mind. “The administration building lighting is controlled by photovoltaic motion sensors that automatically control the lighting in order to minimise electricity usage.

The walls of the building are also constructed from an energy efficient product, made from recycled plastic, with very good thermal insulation properties. Blok explained that the Depot project was consistent with Rea Vaya’s overall efforts to reduce energy consumption.

From the administration building, the visitors were taken to the washing bay area, to be shown the mechanical washer used to clean the buses. Jonathan Smith, ewasha Gauteng distributor, said the washer recycled about 90 000 litres of water.

“Naturally occurring bacteria is used to get rid of organic matter in the water before it is used again to clean the buses,” Smith said. The chemical-free biological treatment system consists of a series of bioreactors made from locally sourced plastic tanks and pumps.

From there, the visitors walked over to the depot’s maintenance buildings where they met MK Mohlala, the chairperson of the Piotrans board, who emphasised the importance of maintaining buses.

“The BRT is good system but it requires maintenance and continuous training of people,” said Mohlala “I think it is a solution to Africa’s transport problems.”

Maintenance

The maintenance buildings have service pits, a tyre store and tyre changing facility, a body and paint shop, ablution facilities and an area to wash bus parts.

Silas Wachira, from Kenya, said he was impressed by the boldness undertaken by the taxi industry and the government to implement such a system.

“It has a future and this is the way to go to combat traffic congestion,” he said. His colleague, Benson Mwakina, echoed his sentiments, saying he was impressed by the organisation of the transportation system.

“The buses are quite comfortable and faster. It is something to be proud of,” said Mwakina. He added that his country was making preparations to start implementing such a system next year.

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