Cape Town - The wheels of the MyCiTi N2 Express have barely started rolling and there is already bickering among some of the signatories.
The Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta), which is a shareholder, is unhappy about the discrepancy in stations between the one in Mitchells Plain and the bus stops in Khayelitsha.
Codeta spokesperson Andile Khanyi said they had been writing to the City, appealing for a fully fledged station like the one Mitchells Plain has, because their commuters are not protected against weather or crime, Khanyi claimed that their cries had fallen on deaf ears.
Before it was relaunched on Saturday, the service had been out of operation since a dispute arose among the route’s taxi industry shareholders when their contracts ended in the first half of 2019.
Negotiations between the City and members of the N2 Express joint venture operating company collapsed.
The company comprises the Route Six Taxi Association from Mitchells Plain, Golden Arrow Bus Services and Codeta from Khayelitsha.
Good party secretary-general Brett Herron said: “We must recall that the N2 Express was meant to expand into the full-blown phase 2 of the MyCiTi network of routes.”
He said the building of a metropolitan scale inter-modal station, similar to the Civic Centre Station, where commuters could interchange between rail, Bus Rapid Transit System, bus and taxi was always part of the plan.
Herron said the City was way behind on the roll-out of phase 2 of the service, and the current pace of delivery meant the entire planned rollout was unlikely to happen.
Urban Mobility Mayco member Rob Quintas said the MyCiTi station in the Mitchells Plain Town Centre was completed by the end of 2014, and would form part of the future Phase 2A service, which is to resume service within the next seven years.
Quintas said it was important to note that the City had always said that it would be rolling out the MyCiTi service across the city while infrastructure projects are ongoing.
“Khayelitsha will eventually consist of a number of MyCiTi stations and stops as part of the implementation and roll-out of Phase 2A of the MyCiTi service between Khayelitsha and Wynberg and Claremont,” he said.
He said the City was working with the communities and stakeholders on designs for MyCiTi stations in Nyanga and Nolungile. Both would form part of a public transport interchange, and Vuyani would be a standalone public transport interchange in Khayelitsha.
He said the new MyCiTi station in Nolungile would be in Site C and would be an integrated public transport hub, enabling commuters in Khayelitsha to transfer with ease between the different modes of public transport ranging from the scheduled MyCiTi bus service to rail, minibus-taxis and long-distance bus services.
“As for Kuyasa, this is not intended to be a MyCiTi station, as it will not form part of the phase 2 roll-out of the MyCiTi service, whereas the Town Centre MyCiTi station in Mitchells Plain will form part of Phase 2A,” Quintas said.