Joburg buses smarten up

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 30 Oct 2007

Johannesburg will have a bus-based mass transit system using smart cards in place to complement the Gautrain by June 2009.

This is when the city - and SA - will host the Confederations Cup, a 2010 Soccer World Cup warm-up.

Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo says the R2 billion Rea Vaya bus rapid transport system is the city`s contribution to the provincial and national effort to boost the Gauteng economy by decongesting the region`s roads.

Rea Vaya complements the i-traffic solution being rolled out along the highways around the city and into Pretoria and Ekurhuleni, as well as a recently announced e-tollgate scheme. The system is based on around 40 similar models already operational elsewhere in the world.

On the road

City of Johannesburg executive director of transport Bob Stanway says phase 1A is to be in place for the Confederations Cup. This includes 40km of dedicated busway and 48 stations, each spaced 500m apart. Phase 1B is to be in place for 2010 and expands the network to 86km and 102 stations.

In the end, there will be up to 150 stations and four depots. Buses will travel along the major trunk routes at intervals of between one to three minutes during peak hours and no longer than 10 minutes waiting periods in off-peak periods between 5am and midnight. The buses travelling on the main trunk routes will be served by local feeder bus systems.

At the stations

Basic stations will feature weather cover, ticketing machines and real-time information displays indicating when the next bus will arrive. Larger stations will offer park-and-ride facilities, drop-off zones, bike parking, information kiosks and metered-taxi ranks.

Three stations will be co-located with the Gautrain rapid-rail system: Park Station, Rosebank and Sandton.

To help ensure passenger safety, all stations will be monitored by closed-circuit television.

Stanway adds that fees will be affordable in order to entice motorists. Payment will be by smart card only, meaning the system will be cashless. The smart cards will also allow access to the Gautrain.

Powerful robots

Other measures announced by Masondo yesterday included a R298 million traffic signal upgrade. This includes placing "robots" at key intersections on uninterrupted power supply to cope with Eskom load shedding and power outages caused by summer storms.

Traffic lights will also get a "Scoot" (split cycle offset optimisation technique) upgrade.

Provided by Siemens, Scoot is an adaptive system that responds automatically to fluctuations in traffic flow through the use of detectors embedded in the road. Scoot publicity material claims the technology typically reduces traffic delay by an average of 20% in urban areas.