Phase one of BRT to include Boksburg
Phase one of the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system will run through Boksburg.
Yolisa Mashilwane, head of department for Ekurhuleni’s Transport Planning, says that the full network plan will consist of five phases and seven routes that will be implemented over a number of years.
As part of phase one, the route will run from Tembisa to Vosloorus.
The first section (trunk) will run from Tembisa to the OR Tambo International Airport (20.45km), then to the Boksburg CBD (12.5km) with a predicted 27 000 daily passengers by 2016.
“The next section will be from the CBD to Vosloorus (17km) with a predicted 10 000 daily passengers,” says Mashilwane.
Part of the route in Boksburg will most likely not feature any stations, but only stops.
“Within the next ten to 15 years we predict that 85 per cent of the population of Ekurhuleni will be within 1km away from public transport.
“During the department’s evaluation we found that 32 per cent of the people we surveyed used a train, 32 per cent used a car, 21 per cent used taxis and only one per cent used a bus.”
The main reasons given for not using a bus as a mode of transportation included almost 50 per cent of people stating that there were no buses available and ten per cent stating they preferred taxis.
Other reasons included:
*Preference of private transport.
* Buses not available often enough.
* No knowledge of timetable or routes.
* Buses don’t go where needed.
