The Gautrain has proved a world-class success, despite the price tag

Almost 10 years ago, when Jack van der Merwe – then the project manager – for the first time explained the Gautrain project to a skeptical press at the Sandton Convention Centre, I and other transport hacks questioned the rationale behind what was then dubbed the “Shilowa Express”, or that former Gauteng premier’s “Pipe Dream”.

Jack, as everyone called him, would oblige with great enthusiasm. Using PowerPoint presentations and a large fold-up route map on the side, he would explain the necessity of building the Gautrain – estimated to cost between R3.5 billion and R4bn in 2002 – over a Y-shaped route of 80 kilometres.

The need for it was based on socio-economic growth statistics that were then “simply staggering”, Van der Merwe said, adding that over the 20 years from 2005 to 2025, and based on forecasts of economic growth on a gross domestic product averaging between 4.5% and 5% a year, an additional two million jobs would be created in Gauteng; and that in 2015 – only three years from now – the local population was expected to increase from 9·6 million to around 14·6 million people.

The 160km/h train would cover the distance of the first phase of the project, between Sandton and OR Tambo International Airport, in less than 15 minutes; while that of the second phase, between Johannesburg Park Station and Hatfield Pretoria, in less than 50 minutes. It would further help decongest the Ben Schoeman Highway linking the two cities, which was then seeing an increase of traffic flow of 7% per annum.

Van der Merwe would tirelessly do these presentations over the next five years at press conferences, transport-related congresses, in boardrooms and at public meetings of affected landowners and people who objected to the project for various reasons.

Much of the criticism, particularly from the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, was that money was being spent on the rich at the expense of the poor; that the project did not serve any of the townships of Gauteng; and that the money should rather be spent on the underfunded Metrorail, which already then was in the process of derailing itself, so to speak.

It even saw Van der Merwe arguing his case in court when environmentalists, municipal associations such as those of Dunkeld (near Rosebank) and Muckleneuk (Pretoria) as well as large property owners such as AECI contested the proposed route of Shilowa’s Pipe Dream.

However, that which was a provincial matter became one of national priority in 2005 after Fifa’s Sepp Blatter had pulled the name “South Africa” from his magic hat to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Despite public hearings in parliament by, and a recommendation from the Transport Portfolio Committee in November 2005 to scrap or postpone the project, the National Cabinet virtually bulldozed the pipe dream into reality by deciding, on 7 December 2005, to support the Gautrain financially.

By this time, after several route changes and with environmental certificates of approval in his back pocket, Van der Merwe told us hacks that in 2005 the cost of the project had been revised upward – from R7bn in 2003 to R20bn (US$3.7bn) .

The national and provincial government would contribute R20bn in equal proportions, and Bombela would contribute the balance of direct project costs. Loan funding would constitute a large part of these amounts.

Work commenced in September 2006. On the Johannesburg-Pretoria axis, Gautengers travelling between the two cities have seen unprecedented change. Unaware of the tunnelling below surface, they saw tower cranes soaring above construction sites and gigantic viaducts emerging from the ground (causing the temporary closures of the highway and feeder roads). Worse, Gautengers have been battling through massive traffic jams as the Gauteng Free Project was started, only to be penalised further when the e-tag toll system is switched on later this year.

The Gautrain is a dream come true, however. I have studied the rapid railway systems of London, Paris and Amsterdam and taken to the Gautrain like a duck to water, admiring its many ultramodern features. The Gautrain is world-class, and the people – down to the cleaners and security guards – are so helpful and friendly that they almost carry you on their hands.

“There is a train coming, madala (elder), please stand away from the yellow line.”

Based in Randburg, where this old hack can hop on a Gautrain feeder bus to Sandton station (near Nelson Mandela Square for the finest steaks, Sandton City for super shopping and the Sandton Convention Centre), I have travelled several times to the airport and to the Road Freight Association’s headquarters near Rhodesfield station, where the large parking lot is always filled with cars of commuters (from as far as Benoni).

I have travelled by train and bus to Midrand to attend four-day conventions at Gallagher Estate, to Centurion for a short taxi ride to Mercedes-Benz headquarters at Swartkops, and to Pretoria where another Gautrain bus will drop you off at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.

And when the water damage to the tunnel is cleared up later this year, I will be able to travel from Sandton to Park Station and the Johannesburg central business district; walk or take a bus to Constitution Hill and the Apartheid Museum, the tourism and jazz mecca in the new Newton Precinct; or even to Ellis Park or Soccer City, this time using the Reya Vaya bus rapid transit system if the drivers are not on strike (they have been for seven weeks as I write).

Just go to Google Earth and the Gautrain’s award-winning website, and a whole new world of destinations reachable by train and bus – complete with timetables and tariffs – opens up for comparison with the cost of operating (fuel, tolls and parking) and maintaining (wear and tear, tyres, etc.) a car.

Van der Merwe predicted that “an array of new high-rise buildings will transform the skyline of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane”, but this is yet to come true. But it probably will when the highway is tolled and industry and office workers move closer to their place of employment. Already, one sees more and more industrial and commercial “parks” being located on the wide strip of land that separates the dual track from the Ben Schoeman Highway.

There are 28 train sets, of which 20 are running as four-car sets that are able to carry more than 100 000 passengers per day in each direction. However, there is provision for multiple working to permit eight-car trains, which could increase capacity to 15 000 passengers per hour in each direction without modifying the signalling.

Services operate every 12 minutes at peak times and every 18 minutes off-peak during the first three years. For the remainder of the 15-year concession period, peak-hour services will be stepped up to run at 10-minute intervals.

High levels of security have been provided on trains and stations, using automatic ticket gates, more than 650 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and very visible policing. Bombela Electrical & Mechanical was contracted to supply automated fare collection systems and CCTV equipment; and passengers are given smartcards rather than magnetic-strip ticketing.

So where are the ‘rich’ people? I see open-mouthed kids and meet ordinary folks of all races, mostly ear-plugged office workers listening to their iPods, reading a newspaper or chatting to complete strangers about rugby, cricket, soccer and this wonderful new stylish way of travelling – one that cuts out traffic congestion, puts hours back into one’s life and does not incite one with taxi hate speech and other forms of road rage.

Critics have questioned ridership estimates, stating that government officials mostly overestimate ridership to gain political approval for projects, and cite numerous international examples where similar projects operate at massive losses or were aborted.

By October 2010, passenger numbers were in line with previous predictions, and growing. Within 100 days of opening the first phase of the system for the public and World Cup fans, no fewer than one million passengers were recorded.

In September, the Gautrain service between Rosebank and Hatfield had a punctuality record of 97.8% in its first 50 days, the Bombela Concession Company said in a statement. This was almost 3% higher than that of the London Overground service.

Spokesperson for the Gautrain’s operator, Nano Gasenewe, said the good track record was achieved despite two service disruptions due to cable theft.

The Sandton airport link had a punctuality record of 99.6% over the same period.

Forty million passenger kilometres – equivalent to about 1 000 times around the world – had been completed in this period. The Gautrain had also completed 48 000 station-to-station trips on this route and had carried 1.2 million passengers.

“Train passengers are currently averaging about 28 000 per day and bus passengers about 9 000 per day, both with steady growth,” said Bombela executive, Errol Braithwaite.

“We are immensely proud to have consistently achieved service levels comparable to the best systems anywhere in the world.”

He added that the company aimed to improve its service and hoped to announce several new initiatives in the near future.

Of course, there are some bills still to be paid. The financing costs involved have not been stated and the sunk costs of the project will be more than the R25bn compared to where it is at now.

In March 2008, Jeremy Cronin – deputy minister of Transport and chairperson of the Transport Portfolio Committee, and deputy secretary-general of the SACP – complained that the cost had apparently quietly crept up to R35bn.

He has long opposed the project, and told parliamentarians during a budget debate that, according to his information, the project’s cost was escalating “quietly and below the radar screen”, though Members of Parliament “were told, hand on heart, here in Parliament just a few years ago, what the written-in-stone absolute upper limit was (then R20bn)”.

Promoted to chief executive officer of the Gautrain management agency, Van der Merwe has subsequently denied this, stating that the project is a fixed-price, fixed-scope and fixed-period contract, and that the price will only increase if the consumer price index increased above the South African Reserve Bank’s prediction, if the Gauteng province were in breach of contract, or if the project’s scope were to change.

According to Engineering News recently, however, Bombela has a claim against the Gauteng government amounting to “not millions, but billions” relating to the release of land on the Gautrain project, as well as other disputes on the rail project.

It quoted Murray & Roberts CEO Henry Laas as saying the consortium had submitted its statement of case with regard to the “delay and disruption” that the consortium experienced in construction work, as well as related disputes on the Gautrain project to the Gauteng provincial government in July.

Laas cautioned investors that the arbitration process was expected to take “a long time”, and that the case was only expected to be heard in 2013.

“This was a difficult project for us,” he said. “The land was not given to us as scheduled, so we incurred significant costs.”

Laas added that once the claims had been settled, it would be possible for Murray & Roberts and its investors to perhaps take “a different view” on the rather negative picture painted in September 2011.

Part of this negativity flowed from the fact that Murray & Roberts, as part of the Bombela Civils Joint Venture, had itself incurred significant penalties, as it had been forced to return to the tunnel between Gautrain’s Park and Rosebank stations to repair water seepage.

Laas said the remedial work meant that Bombela had not achieved the stipulated contractual completion date, with subsequent penalties as well as costs incurred to now complete the work.

He did not want to divulge the cost of repairing the Parktown–Rosebank tunnel, Engineering News reported.

So will Van der Merwe be without a job when the Gautrain project is finally complete? Not a chance. As Road Ahead reported in a previous issue, he has been appointed to head a committee that has to devise a transport master plan for Gauteng – one that will probably include an extension of the Gautrain or a new contract for rapid rail speed links to Durban and Cape Town.

Do not be surprised if it includes a standard gauge rail link with Beitbridge to help make the dream of another politician come true – in this case, Cecil John Rhodes – of a link between the Cape and Cairo.

There seems to be no way of stopping Van der Merwe, and he deserves a medal – even if it is simply for his determination to get things done.

Andy Cole