Boarding at Cosmo City as opposed to Sandton may cost less as Gautrain explores options

The Gautrain management team is exploring ways to make the system more affordable to low-income earners, including structuring future fares according to where commuters live or board the train.

This comes as the Gautrain Management Agency awaits National Treasury approvals for the expansion of the multibillion-rand rapid rail project, which will see the new phase linking Randburg, Cosmo City and Little Falls in the fast-growing northwest region of Johannesburg.

The Treasury said the matter was still under consideration and was yet to be finalised but declined to divulge projected costs.

“Gauteng province and the Gautrain Management Agency have submitted a feasibility study to the Treasury to undertake the Gauteng Rapid Rail Integrated Network extension project as a public-private partnership project. The submission of the feasibility study requires approval under Treasury Regulation 16,” a Treasury spokesperson said.

The proposed extension will see a new route from Marlboro through Sandton, Randburg, Cosmo City and Little Falls.

The full Gautrain expansion plans to take the rapid rail system to some of the province’s impoverished areas, including Jabulani in Soweto and Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, in subsequent phases.

Gautrain Management Agency CEO William Dachs told the TimesLIVE Premium that some of the suggestions aimed at making the system more affordable and accessible are already being implemented after starting as a pilot in 2020. This included a 25% student discount and off-peak fares.

“The bigger one would be where you live,” Dachs said. “It’s no secret Stats SA does household surveys. Let’s say there’s a station in Jabulani. We can lower the fare based on the station they board at and where they’re going.”

He said pensioner discounts were also being considered.

The final expansion will see the network going from 80km to 150km, with an additional 19 stations. It is planned in phases to meet the demand of the growing Gauteng population which is expected to be about 20-million in 2037, Dachs said.

“There’ll be 4-million people who will need to be moved every morning ... and the cheap solution is to not to do it and suffer the consequences of a Gauteng that doesn't work,” Dachs said.

If you look at the northwestern corridor from Lanseria towards Johannesburg there’s no rail service and there’s hardly any bus service, so anything that will improve public transport in that area must be welcomed.

—  ​​Public transport expert, Prof Jackie Walters

The current Gautrain system cost more than R30bn, which includes construction costs, land and other support services. The bulk of the funds came from the public purse.

Dachs refused to speculate on the possible costs of phase one of the expansion, saying it would be determined by the market.

But he said it was important that what the Gautrain generated from fares could cover its running costs.

The first phase of the Gautrain service, which runs between Johannesburg and Pretoria, as well as between OR Tambo Airport and Sandton, has been criticised for being expensive and elitist.

Dachs said this concern was also raised by the National Treasury and the transport department after they submitted their expansion proposal in 2017.

The expansion of the train service has already been given the green light by the Gauteng government. The first phase of the expansion would be a 32km stretch reaching Randburg, Cosmo City and Little Falls.

The next phase, which will see a long tunnel being drilled, reaches Roodepoort and Soweto, cutting the peak travel time from Soweto to Sandton by up to 90 minutes, according to Dachs.

​​Prof Jackie Walters, a public transport expert from the University of Johannesburg, said though the Gautrain was an important intervention in the northwestern areas of the city, it was not the only solution needed at the moment.

“If you look at the northwestern corridor from Lanseria towards Johannesburg there’s no rail service and there’s hardly any bus service, so anything that will improve public transport in that area must be welcomed because it’s a high-density area that continues to develop,” Walters said.

Walters said though he supported the Gautrain expansion into the area — which is in dire need of formal public transport — it shouldn’t be seen as the only solution.

“A development like Gautrain is good but I’d also like to see attention paid more to Prasa and the bus industry but it’s not an either or. I think all of them must be developed as there’s a need for all their services,” Walters said.