Pretoria - None of the bus stations for the state-of the-art A Re Yeng, the City of Tshwane’s bus rapid transit system, should have been built in their current locations.
This is because the location of the stations has remained zoned as streets and others as road reserves, despite the fact that the system has been operating.
Building plans will need to be approved for each of the stations. They also require water supply, along with sewerage and electricity connections.
Three of the stations - Loftus Versfeld, Anton Lembede and Hector Pieterson - will require more attention than others as they were built in the middle of the road, without proper rezoning.
The three affected stations will require a different approach to create individual property descriptions.
It is unclear at this stage when the changes will come into effect and how motorists and pedestrians - and the flow of traffic - will be affected.
The stations, enclosed bus shelters, were built generally on the median area or in the middle of the streets, depending on the specific road type category and available space.
The opposite ends of the stations are for alighting and boarding separately for ease of access.
Blessing Manale, spokesman for city mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa, downplayed the situation and said there was no crisis. He said the building of the stations without property zoning was neither an illegality nor ignorance of the city’s own policies.
The fault, he said, could be attributed to short-sightedness on the part of the designers when the stations were planned and built.
He said in the future, the stations would become hubs that allowed several other activities and that was not possible under the current zoning.
“For argument sake, we cannot put informal traders around the stations. Doing so would mean the traders are operating on public roads. There was no foresight that stations could become a hub of activities.”
The city's rapid transport department took a step towards rectifying the situation when it submitted a report to the council to obtain approval to proceed with partial street closures.
In the report, the department acknowledged that the bus stations were not authorised or permitted under the present zoning of streets.
It was therefore necessary to amend the town planning scheme and rezone the location of the stations to acquire the correct zoning for their footprints.
Various legislative requirements will have to be obtained to correct land use and individual erf number.
“In order to create an erf number for each station situated in the existing streets, a partial street closure will be required,” the department said. In some instances, a partial street closure will be necessary, but this will affect the station footprint only and would not constitute a complete road closure.
Meanwhile, the next phase of the bus rapid transit system - Line B linking Mayville and Hatfield via Pretoria Central - was only expected to go live later this year. The Pretoria News has it on good authority that the line could be launched during Transport Month in October. Manale could not confirm nor deny this.
He said it was delayed largely due to costs that were higher than had been originally budgeted.
This related to the construction of the Wonderboom intermodal facility, which was originally meant to be completed in April but would now be completed in May when the go-live date would be announced.
Pretoria News