Gautrain’s R120 billion expansion plans
During his latest State of the Province Address (SOPA), Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi doubled down on ambitious plans to significantly expand the Gautrain network – which is expected to cost the province tens of billions of rands.
“To uphold the position of Gauteng as the economic hub, we will accelerate our infrastructure investment,” said Lesufi in August.
For this, “in less than two years, the Gauteng government will invest R120 billion for the expansion of the Gautrain,” from 80 to 230km, he added.
The Gauteng Premier said that the expansion of the rapid rail system would bring new areas into the fold, including Soweto, Fourways, Mamelodi, Atteridgeville, Vaal, Lanseria and Springs.
“The expansion is expected to create 125,000 jobs over a five-year period,” [and] “the bid to construct these lines closes at the end of October [2024],” added Lesufi.
TopAuto reported that the upgraded Gautrain is said to form an integral part of the new high-speed railway planned between Gauteng and Limpopo.
Currently, the 80km network launched in 2010 at a cost of R25 billion links Pretoria, Centurion, Johannesburg, Kempton Park, and O.R. Tambo International Airport.
Following this R120 billion announcement, Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) CEO Tshepo Kgobe told eNCA that they have been planning for a while and expansion plans are still on track, however “we are now planning for a much wider network than the initial one that had been released.”
Back in 2014, Gauteng’s provincial government commissioned the GMA to develop a comprehensive strategy to improve mobility in the Gauteng by connecting previously underserved communities to the country’s main economic hubs.
GMA then undertook a feasibility study of the possible extensions to the Gauteng Rapid Rail Integrated Network (GRRIN).
The updated GRRIN extensions feasibility study identified the following links and stations:
- A link between Marlboro and Soweto with an additional station at Sandton, as well as new stations at Randburg, Cosmo City, Little Falls, Roodepoort and Jabulani;
- A link between Jabulani and Mamelodi through Cosmo City, with new stations at Fourways, Sunninghill, Olievenhoutsbosch, Irene, Tshwane East, Hazeldean, and Mamelodi;
- A link between Rhodesfield and Boksburg with new stations at East Rand Mall and Boksburg; and
- A link between Cosmo City and Lanseria Airport with new stations at Cradle and Lanseria.
The “Gautrain project was in phase one, with 80km of rail network linking key economic areas in the province. The agency is planning to expand by another 150km of rail network, which will link the outlying areas,” former GMA CEO William Dachs explained said in 2023.
As outlined by Lesufi in his SoPA speech, the expansion project is expected to begin in 2026 when the Gauteng Provincial Government will take over ownership of the express commuter rail system at the end of the current concession.
The GMA signed a 20-year concession with the Bombela Consortium in 2006 for the consortium to design, build, operate and maintain the network.
“The question is, why don’t you operate it yourself?” said Kgobe.
However he said the “the learnings are clear; we have done well on the basis of separation of the system. When things don’t work out there is a penalty regime so there is pain in not doing things the right way.”
“So, when you have the owner, operator and maintainer of the infrastructure as the same person, you don’t have an incentive to run the system the right way.”
Following the end of the concession, “the Gauteng Provincial Government will own a R45-billion asset which has contributed significantly to the issues of the provincial economy, infrastructural spinoffs and employment opportunities,” Gauteng’s transport department head, Thulani Mdadane said.
The HoD cited a 2019 Hatch study, which found that Gautrain contributes R6.64 billion (0.56%) annually to Gauteng’s GDP.
The Gauteng government argues that an expanded Gautrain could add R5 billion annually during construction and R12.44 billion annually during operations.
Mixed reactions
While some have expessed optimism about the R120 billion taxpayer-funded expansion, others express their concern.
The Automobile Association of South Africa (AA), on the other hand, denounced the plans in no uncertain terms, calling it a ‘disastrous financial decision’.
‘The Association contends that spending billions of Rands on a system that caters for a minority, and which pays vast amounts of public money to a private entity, is neither responsible nor prudent.’
“It is perhaps now time that national government and parliament hold the Gauteng Provincial Government, the MEC and the GMA accountable for spending billions of Rands of taxpayer money on what it is, essentially, a vanity project of the province and not a sustainable public transport solution,” added the AA.
The AA highlighted the patronage guarantee for the Gautrain, which has increased to over R2 billion.
Columnist at the Institute for Race Relations, Ivo Vegter, wrote that “the problem is that the Gautrain, as it exists, is a colossal failure. The ‘Shilowa Express’, as it used to be called, was always a vanity project, designed only to show off Gauteng’s economic prowess: its bling.”
“It always catered largely to the rich, while ignoring the ‘apartheid spatial planning’ that the ITMP25 was supposed to address. Not a single route takes the Gautrain to the working masses, who mostly live in the outlying townships of Johannesburg and Pretoria.”
“This is why the Gautrain has always sucked on the taxpayer’s teat, in the form of a ‘patronage guarantee’ paid annually by the Gauteng Provincial Government,” said Vegter.
Read: New state-owned company for South Africa is coming
Loading ...
