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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TopAuto reported that the upgraded Gautrain is said to form an integral part of the\u00a0new high-speed railway<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0planned between Gauteng and Limpopo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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<\/strong><\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in 2014, Gauteng\u2019s provincial government commissioned the GMA to develop a comprehensive strategy to improve mobility in the Gauteng by connecting previously underserved communities to the country\u2019s main economic hubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GMA then undertook a feasibility study of the possible extensions to the Gauteng Rapid Rail Integrated Network (GRRIN). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The updated GRRIN extensions feasibility study identified the following links and stations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The “Gautrain project was in phase one, with 80km of rail network linking key economic areas in the province.\u00a0The agency is planning to expand by another 150km of rail network,\u00a0<\/strong>which will link the\u00a0<\/strong>outlying areas,\u201d former GMA CEO William Dachs explained said in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The GMA signed a 20-year concession with the Bombela Consortium in 2006 for the consortium to design, build, operate and maintain the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe question is, why don\u2019t you operate it yourself?” said Kgobe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However he said the “the learnings are clear; we have done well on the basis of separation of the system. When things don\u2019t work out there is a penalty regime so there is pain in not doing things the right way.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “So, when you have the owner, operator and maintainer of the infrastructure as the same person, you don\u2019t have an incentive to run the system the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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,\u201d Gauteng\u2019s transport department head, Thulani Mdadane said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The HoD cited a 2019 Hatch study, which found that Gautrain contributes R6.64 billion (0.56%) annually to Gauteng’s GDP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gauteng government argues that an expanded Gautrain could add R5 billion annually during construction and R12.44 billion annually during operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mixed reactions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While some have expessed optimism about the R120 billion taxpayer-funded expansion, others express their concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Automobile Association of South Africa<\/a> (AA), on the other hand, denounced the plans in no uncertain terms, calling it a \u2018disastrous financial decision\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018The 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.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt 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,\u201d added the AA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AA highlighted the patronage guarantee for the Gautrain, which has increased to over R2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Columnist at the Institute for Race Relations, Ivo Vegter, wrote<\/a> that “the problem is that the Gautrain, as it exists, is a colossal failure. The \u2018Shilowa Express<\/a>\u2019, as it used to be called, was always a vanity project, designed only to show off Gauteng\u2019s economic prowess: its bling.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It always catered largely to the rich, while ignoring the \u2018apartheid spatial planning\u2019 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This is why the Gautrain has always sucked on the taxpayer\u2019s teat, in the form of a \u2018patronage guarantee\u2019 paid annually by the Gauteng Provincial Government,” said Vegter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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