Disturbing evidence has come to light of A Re Yeng’s potential financial burden which will be borne by ratepayers, writes Paul Browning.
On Thursday the Tshwane Integrated Public Transport unit will be holding a public consultation meeting to present details of its review of the A Re Yeng Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route from Hatfield to Menlyn.
The city announced in June that it plans to use two of the four traffic lanes in Lynnwood/Atterbury roads for the A Re Yeng system. Only one lane in each direction will be available for use by general traffic including cars.
It appears that the review will be restricted to the way in which the impact on traffic can be limited. The extension of the A Re Yeng line from Hatfield to Menlyn (and in due course to Mamelodi) will still go ahead.
But, since the June announcement, disturbing evidence has come to light of the potential cost to ratepayers – not so much in the capital expenditure on infrastructure, but in the costs of operating the new system.
Last month, the annual SA Transport Conference was held at the CSIR.
Several papers drew attention to the high costs of operation of BRT services such as A Re Yeng.
One paper reached the conclusion that, based on evidence to date in cities which have implemented such systems, the shortfall between fare income and operating costs is greater than anticipated, and that it was likely that this would continue.
“This presents a financial risk for city treasuries with whom rests the ultimate responsibility for covering the costs,” the paper said.
This situation was confirmed in a presentation by Transport for Cape Town (TCT), the transport authority responsible for that city’s MyCiTi Integrated Public Transport Network.
The TCT business development manager described how operating costs had proved to be far greater than income from fares.
The city had allocated 4 percent of rates revenue for the support of MyCiTi, but so substantial was the shortfall that even if this were to be doubled, to 8 percent, it would still be nowhere near enough to meet the difference between costs and income.
There is no reason to believe that the A Re Yeng will not experience the same results. Residents of Tshwane might be wary of a situation where perhaps 10 percent of rates income must be devoted to the public transport system.
The City of Tshwane seems to be aware of the potential costs. Its draft Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan (CITP) was published in April.
It included this comment : “A paradigm shift is needed to help change the mindset of people to make a modal shift from cars to public transportation.
“However, the costs associated with improving the public transportation system are high.”
But the objective of these advanced bus networks is to get car users out of their private vehicles and on to public transport. If the costs, as the CITP indicates, are high – what alternatives are there?
The draft CITP offered the city’s suggestion:
“The single strategy which can have an impact, with limited cost to the city, is the implementation of a Large Employer Trip Reduction Plan. This entails a policy change, whereby the city passes a by-law requiring all large employers, typically above 300 or 500 employees, to submit a plan to reduce the private travel to and from their place of work.”
This is an imaginative proposal. Something similar was described earlier this year in an article on these pages by Shelley Childs (Smart way to avoid e-tolls, March 26). She advocated the development of “pod-offices”.
“What is needed is a formal office environment close to where employees live. Such premises could house employees from several companies in satellite/pod offices.”
If the Trip Reduction Plan strategy were to be adopted, attention could be given to providing a better public transport service for existing users – mainly lower-income residents.
There are in Tshwane whole fleets of buses (Putco, North West Star, Tshwane Bus Services, and others) and of course, taxis. They all operate independently.
If these existing assets were to be planned and operated as an integrated network, there would be (a) very little need for capital expenditure, and (b) opportunities for introducing operational efficiencies and lower costs. A city-wide improved service could be implemented relatively quickly. In time, and in response to demonstrated demand, some major routes could be upgraded to BRT-type operations.
The TRT meeting on Thursday will not consider these issues, but they should be given a full public airing before the city embarks on the A Re Yeng extension.
*Browning is an independent transport analyst in Pretoria.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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