Gauteng tolls: Suburbs to suffer

Gauteng tolls: Suburbs to suffer

The Automobile Association (AA) says plans to introduce 32 tolls on Gauteng's roads without alternative public transport will result in more traffic in suburbs as motorists use back roads to avoid freeways.

The toll system, which will see motorists cough up around 50c per kilometre travelled, is being rolled out to raise money to maintain the 125km of new freeways that will be built in the province. The SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) awarded seven contracts in mid-2008 worth over R11bn for the first phase (125km) of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). A total of 500 kilometres of roads are due to be upgraded.

This article was run on Fin24.com detailing how a new proposed toll road system will put something like 7 toll roads on the route between from Edenvale to Sandton should you travel along the highway.

One of the ladies in our office did some quick calculations - it will add R600 to her monthly budget just to get to and from work each month.

While in principal the idea is great and serves a purpose, we STILL don't have a working public transport system (be it bus, taxi or rail) for us to move around with even if we did opt for public transport to and from business centres.

It is almost like we are looking at the problem the wrong way around and we are now rushing to find a way to introduce these tolls without addressing the fundamental problem that has led to there being too many cars on the roads.

The South African middle class is still growing and while the latest credit crunch might put a dent in affordability, there is going to be more and more middle class South Africans with cars on the road.

Why? Because they need to get around and our local transport system is failing us at the moment.

My grumble is that we should have addressed the bus / taxi issue, 8 years ago when this recapitalisation programme was mooted. We should have worried less about what the millitant taxi drivers were thinking and gotten a bus system in place.

Instead it has been allowed to sit up in the air for too long and now the timetable that says we need this toll road system in place, we are now pondering how this whole thing is going to work and how we are going to actually get around and how commuters are going to be able to AFFORD these toll systems.

I'll be honest I think its a pretty curious setup and unless some significant changes are made in our domestic transport system, we don't have a price of absorbing these costs into our monthly budgets.

Private investment in SA rail close - sources

(Reuters) - South Africa's state-run rail system is set for an overhaul involving private investment and prompted by a shortage of freight capacity to carry coal to export terminals, coal industry and transport sources said.
Read the complete article here on Moneyweb.

Train sector recruitment

Ok this has zilch to do with recruitment in the South African train sector but I did come across this site for recruitment in the Indian train industry and I thought it was a good reference site:

Check them out here.