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Cape Town public transport

On the cards are:

# The number of trains being increased from 80 to 108.

# Bus subsidies being raised from R350-million to R500m.

# The free-for-all minibus taxi industry being integrated into the public transport system where the state "takes ownership" of taxi routes.

Cape Town is also poised to form a Metropolitan Transport Authority to iron out the fragmentation of the transport system, caused by national, provincial and local government authorities controlling different segments of the system.

The city will also get an integrated ticket system where commuters buy one ticket to ride on a bus, a taxi or a train.

These were some of the moves revealed by Transport and Public Works MEC Marius Fransman at the Cape Town Press Club on Monday.

He was speaking on changes to the city's transportation network in preparation for hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup semi-final.

Fransman said the provincial government had decided that public transport would be the "critical path-breaker" to economic growth in the province.

It had also decided to move away from a "populist" approach to planning and development in the Western Cape.

"The drive for 2010 is to create a long-lasting legacy for public transport. What this will require over the next few years is more certainty, more predictability and less populism," Fransman said.

This would also apply to the "not so sexy areas" of underground infrastructure, he said.

Labels: South Africa - Transport