Cape Town – Residents from the historically disadvantaged areas of Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain – some 27-36km away from Cape Town’s CBD – will be able to commute to the City via MyCiti’s N2 Express when it resumes service on February 19 after three years.
The first buses of the resumed MyCiti N2 Express service are set to depart from Kapteinsklip in Mitchells Plain and Kuyasa in Khayelitsha at roughly 5am on Saturday, February 19, and travel to City’s Civic Centre in the CBD.
“We have been working non-stop over the past few weeks and I am pleased to say that all is on course for the service to resume. The bus fleet is being serviced, bus drivers are being trained and familiarised with the routes, and the vandalised bus shelters will be repaired or replaced in coming weeks,” Cape Town’s Mayco Member for Urban Mobility Rob Quintas said on Friday.
On Wednesday, a fleet of 34 buses was passing its final checks as the service was getting ready to resume after nearly three years.
However not all 34 buses will service the route once the service returns on February 19, instead a three phased approach will be utilised over four weeks with more buses being added gradually as commuters return to using the service.
Approximately 6 000 commuters benefit from the MyCiti N2 Express service.
Quintas outlines the phases as follows:
- Phase 1: 19 February to 4 March 2022 (D01, D02, D04), which will be a limited start-up service
- Phase 2: 5 March to 18 March 2022 (D01, D02, D04), additional buses will be added to match the increase in passenger demand
- Phase 3: 19 March 2022 onwards (D01, D02, D03, D04), the D03 route is introduced as the service becomes fully operational
D01, D02, D03 and D04 refers to the routes the buses will take.
MyCiti outlines the routes as follows:
- Route D01 Khayelitsha to Civic Centre
- Route D02 Khayelitsha via Mew Way to Civic Centre
- Route D03 Mitchells Plain to Civic Centre
- Route D04 Kapteinsklip to Civic Centre
“I want to thank our partners from the N2 Company who will be operating the service: Lisekhonikamva (Codeta) from Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain Rapid Transit (Route Six from Mitchells Plain), and Golden Arrow Bus Services (Gabs) and City officials,” Quintas said.
There has been no N2 Express service since 2019 after contracts were not renewed due to a dispute between the route’s taxi industry shareholders, Cape Argus reported in January.
However the N2 Express service has finally reached an operational date after the City of Cape Town signed a new contract with the N2 Company this year.
The N2 company is equally owned by the two taxi associations (Codeta and Route Six) and Gabs.
The fleet of 34 buses set to service the route is owned by the City, but managed and maintained by the N2 Company.
IOL