Minister of Transport Sbu Ndebele welcomed the opening of the Hatfield to Rosebank Gautrain line on Tuesday and said it would change the lifestyle of commuters.
“The Gautrain has ushered in a new era in public transportation, matching world standards for passenger rail transport,” said Ndebele, who encouraged commuters to use the line.
He said families would be able to spend quality time together as opposed to spending hours stuck in traffic and only getting home when some members of the family were sleeping.
The much anticipated launch saw more than 11 000 passengers boarding the high-speed train by midday on Tuesday and officials said they were very happy with the overall turn-out. Apart from one train which had to return to the platform after a mechanical glitch, everything ran smoothly.
The first train to depart from Hatfield Station was almost packed to capacity. The Gautrain is expected to cut the traffic on the roads by 20 percent and as more people get used to the idea, the number is expected to increase.
Errol Braithwaite, the marketing executive at Gautrain, said: “We are happy with the turn-out and this is exactly what we wanted. We are expecting the numbers to increase as people get used to the train.”
Gauteng Transport MEC Ismail Vadi also boarded the 5.30am train and said he was happy with how people had responded.
“We as government are determined to make the Gautrain the public transport of choice and commuters will never experience the same frustrations as motorists do on the roads,” said Vadi. He added that it was hoped 100 000 commuters would use the Gautrain daily.
“Gauteng stands out as the pride of this nation.”
Ndebele also took the time to tell people the government was making steady progress towards ensuring that rail became the backbone of South Africa’s public transport system.
He said the government would spend more than R30 billion in the next three years on rail upgrades across the country. More than R19bn of that was earmarked for capital spending to upgrade infrastructure, signalling systems and rolling stock.
The minister said people driving alone in their cars would hopefully have a change of heart when they saw more than four trains passing them while they were stuck in traffic and become part of the Gautrain lifestyle going through the province. - Pretoria News