2009-11-16: Temporary withdrawal of Rea Vaya central business district circle routes, C3 and C4
THE City of Johannesburg will temporarily withdraw the Inner City circle routes of the Rea Vaya BRT system due to a number of challenges. Passengers are assured that once all the issues have been addressed to the City's satisfaction, the service will be reinstated.
The Rea Vaya BRT system commenced operating the trunk route of its starter service on 31 August 2009 and the two CBD circle routes were added on 21 September 2009.
While the trunk route service between Thokoza Park in Soweto (via the Johannesburg CBD) to Ellis Park, making use of 23 stations en route, has proved to be a resounding success catering for more than 16 000 commuters daily, there has not been such an up take for the inner city circular routes
The inner city circular routes were originally designed to cater for the distribution of trunk route passengers throughout the CBD as well as provide an alternative mode of inner city mobility for business people.
The inner city service has however not been well patronised attracting at best 200 passengers per day.
An investigation by the BRT Project Office indicated that the poor patronage is due to a number of reasons including:
Limited number of ticket vendors and reluctance by some to carry prominent Rea Vaya signage on their shop doors. This means that there have not been vendors next to bus stops which is critical since the inner city circular route does not use the trunk routes;
severe traffic congestion and poor traffic control making it quicker for people to walk than use the bus in some areas;
cars parked at most bus stops and vehicles having to load in the middle of the road; and
Bus stops not being identified by bolder signage.
"I have instructed my team to immediately begin with a redesign of the a CBD service that would much better serve public demand and will also link the trunk services to high density business areas such as Braamfontein, said Councillor Rehana Moosajee, a Member of the Mayoral Committee responsible for Transport in the City of Johannesburg.
"We are also engaging the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department to implement a plan to address the clearing of bus stops and the policing of the exclusive BRT lanes, as well as the improvement of general traffic control at difficult intersections", added Councillor Moosajee.
"We then plan to reintroduce this service when we roll out the full phase 1A service in the first quarter of next year. This service will be run by a taxi owned bus operating company, the next important milestone in the roll out of the Rea Vaya BRT", Councillor Moosajee concluded.
The last day of operation of the Inner City circle services will be Wednesday 18 November 2009. The Soweto/Ellis Park trunk services will continue to operate normally and are not affected by the withdrawal of the Inner City circle distribution routes at all.
The City apologises for any inconvenience caused to those passengers that supported the service.
Issued by:
City of Johannesburg
For enquiries contact:
Nthatisi Modingoane
Deputy Director: Communications
CITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Tel: (011) 407 7354
Fax: 403 3494
Cell: 082 467 9228
E-mail: nthatisem@joburg.org.za
