Residents celebrate bus route change

Residents of Johannesburg's suburbs along Oxford Road welcomed the decision to reroute the Rea Vaya bus rapid transit system (BRT) to Louis Botha Avenue.

Residents of Saxonwold, Forest Town, Parkwood and Parktown said this week they were relieved that the City of Johannesburg will no longer roll out Rea Vaya along Oxford Road as previously proposed, The Saturday Star reported.

"We are 100 percent for public transport that is efficient, reliable and safe on our streets, but we've always expressed our irritation that this one wasn't done properly to minimise impact on the area," member of the Saxonwold Residents' Association, Tessa Turvey was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

"It's a victory from a heritage, traffic and environmental point of view."

The city announced the expansion of the BRT northward to Sandton would no longer be rolled out along Oxford but along Louis Botha Avenue to Alexandra and then to Sandton, at a transport committee meeting.

This came two years after many residents expressed unhappiness about the rollout, citing traffic flow, devalued property, noise, safety and security, and the impact of construction on heritage sites.