Race to get Cape Town IRT buses ready for tournament

Ensuring that the 43 integrated rapid transit (IRT) buses reach Cape Town on time is the city's biggest transport challenge before the World Cup.

The buses will be used to ferry soccer fans between the airport and city, and from Hertzog Boulevard, where the main IRT station is being built, to the stadium on match days.

The 43 buses are designed to accommodate the disabled, with the first to be arrive next month. All the buses are due to be delivered by May.

A senior member of the city's transport directorate is to fly to Brazil next week to sign off the first prototype bus. The buses will cost the city just over R100 million.

Peter Sole, of the city's transport directorate, said everything was on track. The World Cup transport plan had been approved by the council, and elements of it were being implemented during the stadium test events.

Two test events have been held at Cape Town Stadium, and a third - a full-capacity event - is to take place on March 22.

"The shuttle service was one of the major challenges," said Sole.

"But this was mainly because we used commuter (Golden Arrow) buses. For the World Cup we will have the IRT buses, which have multiple-entry points and can take more spectators."

Sole said the buses ferrying spectators to test events had travelled in general traffic. For the World Cup, a number of roads would be closed.

"This means the shuttle service will be able to operate more efficiently," he said.

But the two test events had proved how essential the IRT buses were.

"We cannot transport spectators with commuter buses during the World Cup. It will take too long."

Ron Kingma, of the city's 2010 transport team, said it would take less than a minute to fill an IRT bus with spectators after a match. The IRT bus takes up to 150 passengers.

About 22 000 spectators are expected to use the shuttle service on match days.

Sole said about 20 000 people were expected to use the fan walk, with the rest parking in the city and at the V&A Waterfront. The shuttle service from Hertzog Boulevard to the stadium and back is free for ticket-holders.

Disabled spectators will be transported by the city's Dial-a-Ride buses from Hertzog Boulevard to the stadium.

Park-and-ride schemes, where fans can park their cars and be ferried to the stadium and fan parks, are also being put in place at railway stations across the city. The aim is to discourage the use of private transport.

Sole encouraged motorists to stay as far from the city as possible on match days.

All the park-and-ride facilities would be safe, secure and well lit, he said.

"Rail forms the backbone of the World Cup transport plan. Ticket-holders can use the rail network into the city free of charge on match days."

Seven of the 26 consultants hired to devise a World Cup transport solution for the provincial government under the previous ANC-led administration have been seconded to the city.

The 2010 contract, awarded to US company Games Transportation Systems Services (GTSS), came under scrutiny in a provincial treasury investigation last year.

The treasury investigated why the R91m contract had not been put out to tender and what steps had been taken to confirm that no South African companies could provide the required services. Questions were also raised about GTSS's BEE partner, which was not named in the provincial treasury documents.

The contract was signed and approved in 2007 by the head of the provincial transport department, Thami Manyathi, who has been suspended. GTSS had been paid R45m by the time Manyathi was suspended.

Transport and Public Works MEC Robin Carlisle said that of the 26 GTSS consultants, seven were helping with the city's World Cup transport plan and eight had been deployed in Eden and Beaufort West.

Cape Argus

Posted at 10:14AM Feb 23, 2010 by Editor in Residential  |  Comments[5]