Government is on course to improve the public transport system, including passenger rail, to benefit all South Africans, says Transport Minister Dipuo Peters.

“We have allocated R4 billion for rail operations and R4.1 billion for the Capital Programme which will enable PRASA to upgrade and strengthen the capacity of our passenger rail services,” the Minister said.

The Minister was outlining the department’s new priorities during the Budget Vote address at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Parliament, on Wednesday.

She said she is satisfied that there is a fair balance in increasing the capacity of Metrorail in all Metropolitan areas.

In this 2015/16 financial year, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is expected to take delivery of the first 20 train sets built in Brazil as part of the Rolling Stock Renewal Programme.

New train factory

She said plans to build a R1 billion factory in Ekurhuleni to produce the 580 trains and create an estimated 65 000 direct and indirect jobs over the ten year contract period are on course.

As part of the preparation for the new rolling stock, upgrades and modernisation of stations and depots to the tune of R2.2 billion are being undertaken in Duffs Road station in KZN; Philippi Station in the Western Cape; and Park station extension in Gauteng.

“We have demonstrated that we are on course to improve our public transport system, including passenger rail, to benefit our people and we committed to accelerate road infrastructure development both as an important lever of economic growth and a catalyst for job creation,” the Minister said.

In 2014/15, the Public Transport Infrastructure and Systems Grant (PTISG) and Public Transport Network Operations Grant (PTNOG) covered projects in 12 cities with approximately R5.87 billion in grant funding.

Bus Rapid Transit

George Municipality and Tshwane Metro launched their pilot operations to test their Bus Rapid Transit services which are called “Go George” and “A re Yeng”, respectively.

This brings to four the total number of cities running the BRT operations, which includes “MyCiti” in the Western Cape and “Rea Vaya” in Johannesburg.

In these four cities, the incumbent minibus operators on the affected routes form the core of the new operating companies, where over 1 000 direct jobs have been created.

In the 2015/16 financial year, government will proceed to invest R5.95 billion through Public Transport Network Grant (PTNG) in the twelve identified cities.