By Andisiwe Makinana

Political Writer

The provincial government has decided to stop building roads in the Western Cape for at least the next five years and intends using the estimated R14-billion saved to develop public transport infrastructure.

Public Works and Transport MEC Robin Carlisle says public transport is the answer to the congestion on Cape Town's roads.

Road projects which are already under way - including those on Hospital Bend, Koeberg Interchange, the eastern and western boulevards as well as the N2 - will be completed.

But the planned extensions of the R300 to Melkbosstrand in the north and to Ladies' Mile Road on the M3 at its southern end will be curtailed.

The money budgeted for the public transport project will be used to introduce a bus rapid transit system in areas that do not have rail transport, according to Carlisle.

This system was not the same as the current bus rapid transit and integrated rapid transit system being planned and organised by the City of Cape Town.

Instead, Carlisle is proposing the development of a system that will address public transport problems in areas like Langa, Bonteheuwel, Delft, Athlone and Gugulethu.

"We have decided that, by and large, we will not build roads any more - unless those roads are for the specific and sole purpose of public transport.

"If a new area develops, we may have to build a road to connect it, yes, but, by and large, the days of roads are over."

He said the provincial government would, through the provincial treasury, ask the national Treasury to put the R14bn budgeted for the extension of the R300 road into public transport.

He stressed that the extension of the R300 would "mostly benefit middle and upper middle class people driving alone in their motor cars" rather than help address transport problems faced by the poor.

Carlisle said public transport had shrunk from a 55 percent to a 33 percent market share.

Passenger rail travel had dropped by 90 percent while freight rail had "virtually disappeared".

"Our roads, which are extraordinarily expensive to maintain, have been pounded to pieces by four million truck trips a year."

He said the "horrendous" congestion in the city would be eased "a little" by the huge sums being spent on upgrading Hospital Bend, the Koeberg Interchange, the boulevards and the N2.

Carlisle said expenditure on public transport would have positive knock-on effects for the province's economy.

"It is going to create jobs, to create economic growth, to be the principal vehicle for cutting across the old geographic divides of the apartheid city and the one thing that can pull this city together."

Carlisle said that by 2014, the provincial government would have doubled the number of train sets and made small extensions to the railway lines. This would be done in consultation with Metrorail and the Treasury.

He said some of his other goals included: