In just a few days Gautrain commuters will finally be able to climb aboard at Johannesburgs’s Park station.

Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport Ismail Vadi, in presenting his R4.36 billion budget in the provincial legislature on Tuesday, announced that the Gautrain would finally be fully operational by Friday 18 June 2012.

The Park station to Rosebank section should have been opened last month but had to be postponed due to a dispute between the operating company, Bombela Concession Company, and the provincial government about a water-seepage problem in the tunnel. Under contract, Bombela is required to address this problem and to maintain a maximum standard. The acceptable water seepage limit was 10 litres a minute for every 10m of tunnel, and the seepage was above that threshold.

GMA head Jack van der Merwe said at this time it had to be remembered that this was a 100-year project, and that Bombela had an agreement to operate the trains for only the next 15 years. After the Bombela contract ended, Gauteng would then be responsible for any water damage.

Last year, Bombela had been instructed by the Dispute Resolution Board to remedy the situation. The water seepage issue has yet to be resolved, but according to GMA spokeswoman Barbara Jensen, the issue was contractual and not operational, and it would be dealt with through arbitration in September. She said the testing of the trains on the route had gone smoothly.

Vadi on Tuesday said the Gautrain passenger demand on the airport services remained steady, with about 109 000 passengers a month.

“Since August 2011 to date, almost 7 million passenger trips were made on the Gautrain and 1.5m trips were made on the Gautrain buses,” Vadi said.