SPEECH BY THE EXECUTIVE MAYOR OF JOHANNESBURG, CLR AMOS MASONDO, ON THE CCCASION OF THE SIGNING OF A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEN THE TAXI ASSOCIATIONS AND THE CITY ON THE BUS RAPID TRANSIT (BRT) TRANSPORT SYSTEM, JOHANNESBURG STADIUM, BETRAMS - JOHANNESBURG 23 October 2007 Programme Director Speaker of Council: Clr Nkele Ntingane Chief Whip of Council: Clr Bafana Sithole MMC for Transportation: Clr Rahana Moosajee Members of the Mayoral Committee Fellow Councillors City Manager: Mavela Dlamini Top Six Taxi Association Chairperson: Mr Sicelo Mabaso Top Six Taxi Association President: Mr Sipho Mtambo Greater Johannesburg Regional Taxi Council Chairperson: Mr Eric Motshwane Managers and Officials of Council South African Bus Operator's Association (SABOA): Professor Jackie Walters PUTCO Representatives Gauteng Operating License Board Representatives The Commuter Organisation's Representatives Transport User Group Representatives (People living with disabilities) The Transport Worker's Union Representatives The Media Distinguished Guests Ladies and Gentlemen Programme Director, it is indeed a great honour and a privilege for me to share this day with you and to be part of this very important event – to be part of a programme that seeks to change the face of public transport system in the City of Johannesburg. Our aim is to provide a transport system that is faster, cheaper or affordable, safer and more reliable. This launch of the Rea Vaya and the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the taxi industry takes place at very symbolic period on our national calendar - the Transport Month. This memorandum of understanding provides a broad framework for the ongoing interaction on transport issues between the City of Johannesburg and the Taxi Associations. The fact that the Greater Johannesburg Taxi Council and the Top Six Taxi Association have formed a joint steering committee is in itself a historic development. In this City, we need to spend time together, think and plan together and together search for creative transport solutions to our own challenges. Programme Director, it is important to remind ourselves that the taxi industry occupies an important place in our economy: The City of Johannesburg has a population of 3,7 million and the average travel time to work is about 1 hour and 78 minutes when there is a transfer from taxi to taxi; Public transport users spend more than 10% of personal income to travel to work; 63% of households do not own any car; 14% of public transport trips are made on trains, there are 55 railway stations and some of the busiest being the Johannesburg Park station, Langlaagte, Roodepoort and Stretford; 72% of all public transport trips are made on taxis. Programme Director, the Memorandum of Understanding that we are signing today, is the culmination of a lengthy process of consultation between the City and the taxi industry on various issues with regards to the future of public transport in the City of Johannesburg. Let me state from the outset that the City of Johannesburg values the contribution that the taxi industry has made over decades to the economic growth and progress of South Africa, especially to Johannesburg. Programme Director, if we look around us we can see how the City is growing and expanding at a rapid pace. The conservative estimates are that our population will increase by an additional 3, 5 million people in the next quarter of a century. The centrality of planning and urban management is self evident. Given the nature of the Gauteng Province and especially the interconnectedness of the three metros: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni there is a clear need for a closer collaboration and partnership amongst the various stakeholders. Such planning should amongst others take into account questions such as: congestion and traffic gridlock and how it impacts on productivity and economic growth; concerns about industrial pollution, air quality and noise levels; a disturbing increase of the number of informal settlements; the need to look into the future, predict and anticipate human settlement patterns; business nodes and areas of economic activity Programme Director, there is a growing consensus among transport experts worldwide that steps should be taken to minimise the impact of private vehicle use in our cities. Through the duration of the "Transport Month" we have endeavoured once again to put the public transport question on the agenda. We have raised issues such as: High Occupancy Vehicle lanes, encouraging ride-sharing, use of public transport, deepening profiling of projects such as the Gautrain, building of roads and improving our rail networks. Programme Director, on a global stage, we have noted how city governments from Singapore to Sydney and from Toronto to Tokyo are developing strategies to discourage the use of private vehicles. Solutions put forward vary from the imposition of high parking fees in inner cities and expensive tolls to the outright banning of certain types of vehicles during certain times of the day in specific areas (e.g. CBDs). In Johannesburg we are convinced that the introduction of an affordable, safe, clean, fast, effective and efficient public transport system will form a key part of response to these challenges. The Strategic Public Transport Network plan has been in the public domain for some time now and out of this grew the initiative for the Bus Rapid Transit transport system. Programme Director, please allow me to indicate that in August this year I visited the Cities of Bogota and Pereira in Colombia, where, together with a delegations from our Taxi Associations, some advisors and government officials we had the opportunity to look at the bus rapid transit transport system called the TransMilenio (Transmilenia). This visit confirmed positive elements of similar systems that are already being implemented in cities such as Brisbane, Boston, Beijing, Los Angeles and Jakarta. We went to Colombia not to copy what the Colombians do but to identify best practice and to adapt it to our own specific Johannesburg reality. The most important feature of Rea Vaya is that buses will travel along dedicated median busways rather than kerbside bus lanes. These busways will have a distinct coloured surface to separate it from the lanes used by ordinary traffic. The busways will ensure priority movement for the buses and minimise conflicts with left-turning vehicles. Along most portions of the routes the system will operate with a single busway next to a mixed traffic lane in each direction. Buses will travel along the major trunk routes at intervals of between 1 to 3 minutes during peak hours and no longer than ten minutes waiting periods in off-peak periods. The system will operate between 05h00 in the morning and midnight. We envisage a situation where bus stations will be situated every 500 meters along the routes and passengers will enter these enclosed facilities through a system of pre-board fare collection that will include smart cards. Programme Director, we envisage construction for Rea Vaya commencing in 2007 and being completed in time for the Confederations Cup in 2009. By the time the first visitors for the 2010 FIFA World Cup arrive in Johannesburg in less than 1 000 days from now the new bus system will already be a distinctive feature of our City's landscape. A number of routes will be introduced during the first phase of Rea Vaya including: Parktown to Ellis Park via Saratoga Avenue. Dobsonville to the CBD via the Pat Mbatha transitway. Lenasia to Sunninghill via Regina Mundi. Orlando, Highgate, Parktown, Rosebank and Sandton. Alexandra to Randburg via Sandton. From the Soweto Highway to Dobsonville; and A CBD circle route. The Rea Vaya project builds on the planning work done for the City's Strategic Public Transport Network (SPTN) but with important new elements that will improve the effectiveness, quality and affordability of the system. It will cut down dramatically on travelling times and through the use of clean fuels and modern propulsion systems it will ensure that the negative environmental impact is kept at a minimum. Programme Director, the taxi industry is well known for its spirit of entrepreneurship and I have no doubt that it will also recognise and seize on the arising opportunities. I think it is quite clear that public transport will undergo massive changes in the coming few years. It is of vital importance that all of us should focus our attention on this future. If we fail to do so, new developments will simply overtake us and we will be rendered irrelevant. In this City we have said, over and over again that government working alone and in isolation will never adequately address all the challenges that face us. We would therefore like to see the taxi industry, bus industry, organisations of civil society, the various communities as well as the government continuing to work together. What we need is partnership and more partnership. Thank you