Comments on: The Gautrain: the best way to escape Joburg airport, hands down http://www.howzzzt.co.za/the-gautrain/ An introduction to South Africa: straightforward advice and honest information for visitors, tourists, travellers and the just plain curious. Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:25:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Howzzzt http://www.howzzzt.co.za/the-gautrain/comment-page-1/#comment-72 Howzzzt Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:38:15 +0000 http://www.howzzzt.co.za/?p=454#comment-72 Quite so. The theory seems to be that if you are going to the airport, you are flying. And if you are flying, you have the wherewithal to cheerfully pay a premium for a direct train and one with carriages made for easy loading and unloading of heavy, oversized bags.<br><br>Which is probably true – especially if you are a tourist. But it does rather fail to provide for the several thousand people who work at the airport, for instance.<br><br>We're with you on this one. There'll probably be fierce competition between the minibus guys and the metered taxis, not to mention all the airport shuttles that suddenly have no prospect of survival, to fill in that Rhodesfield -> airport gap. Quite so. The theory seems to be that if you are going to the airport, you are flying. And if you are flying, you have the wherewithal to cheerfully pay a premium for a direct train and one with carriages made for easy loading and unloading of heavy, oversized bags.

Which is probably true – especially if you are a tourist. But it does rather fail to provide for the several thousand people who work at the airport, for instance.

We're with you on this one. There'll probably be fierce competition between the minibus guys and the metered taxis, not to mention all the airport shuttles that suddenly have no prospect of survival, to fill in that Rhodesfield -> airport gap.

]]> By: Jeroen van Marle http://www.howzzzt.co.za/the-gautrain/comment-page-1/#comment-71 Jeroen van Marle Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:12:44 +0000 http://www.howzzzt.co.za/?p=454#comment-71 Good news eh. Till the rest of the network opens next June you can get as far as Rosebank using the Gautrain feeder buses - then you're on your own and need a taxi.<br>I'm intrgued by the Rhodesfield station which is just 500m from the airport, on the other side of the highway. Commuter GauTrains stop here, and the fare is about R20 to get there, instead of the R100 to the airport proper. Walking from there to the airport is near impossible due to the spaghetti of asphalt... but all it takes is one smart minibus entrepreneur to offer a regular R5-10 shuttle bus service from Rhodesfield to ORTIA and you have an excellent cheap alternative that could be popular with backpackers and some locals. Good news eh. Till the rest of the network opens next June you can get as far as Rosebank using the Gautrain feeder buses – then you're on your own and need a taxi.
I'm intrgued by the Rhodesfield station which is just 500m from the airport, on the other side of the highway. Commuter GauTrains stop here, and the fare is about R20 to get there, instead of the R100 to the airport proper. Walking from there to the airport is near impossible due to the spaghetti of asphalt… but all it takes is one smart minibus entrepreneur to offer a regular R5-10 shuttle bus service from Rhodesfield to ORTIA and you have an excellent cheap alternative that could be popular with backpackers and some locals.

]]> By: Howzzzt http://www.howzzzt.co.za/the-gautrain/comment-page-1/#comment-70 Howzzzt Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:24:01 +0000 http://www.howzzzt.co.za/?p=454#comment-70 The Gautrain, which is a private concession, is running its own fleet of busses along feeder routes. And we're hoping that a small, private outfit will do a good job of it. Especially when it has to make back the billions spent building the rails and stuff; they can't exactly afford to run an inefficient bus service.<br><br>Those busses will plug into the new bus rapid transit system for the city. Which is a neat idea (dedicated bus lanes, elevated stations for fast on-and-off of passengers, and generally something that acts like a subway) that, with any luck, will also work well.<br><br>But the regular metro busses? Yeah, those still suck a little. The Gautrain, which is a private concession, is running its own fleet of busses along feeder routes. And we're hoping that a small, private outfit will do a good job of it. Especially when it has to make back the billions spent building the rails and stuff; they can't exactly afford to run an inefficient bus service.

Those busses will plug into the new bus rapid transit system for the city. Which is a neat idea (dedicated bus lanes, elevated stations for fast on-and-off of passengers, and generally something that acts like a subway) that, with any luck, will also work well.

But the regular metro busses? Yeah, those still suck a little.

]]> By: woollythinker http://www.howzzzt.co.za/the-gautrain/comment-page-1/#comment-69 woollythinker Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:09:14 +0000 http://www.howzzzt.co.za/?p=454#comment-69 Bus networks, really? I admit I've been out of the loop for *shudder* 8 years now, but Joburg buses never used to be any good at all. You needed to do some serious investigating just to find out where and when they actually ran, and then, if you were very lucky, they might actually arrive, and if you were very very lucky, they might take you somewhere remotely useful. So... really, are they better now? Bus networks, really? I admit I've been out of the loop for *shudder* 8 years now, but Joburg buses never used to be any good at all. You needed to do some serious investigating just to find out where and when they actually ran, and then, if you were very lucky, they might actually arrive, and if you were very very lucky, they might take you somewhere remotely useful. So… really, are they better now?

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