MyCiTi gets approval from taxi association

Cape Town's Mayor Patricia de Lille says R32bn will be spent on improving public transport over the next 20 years. Image: Cape Town

The MyCiTi service will be extended to Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha from next month.

The city will train 100 minibus-taxi drivers to be employed as MyCiTi bus drivers once they have passed the necessary tests.

The Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta), an umbrella body for all taxi organisations in the Western Cape, said it supported the city's plan to give preference to former minibus-taxi employees for employment in the MyCiTi service. The MyCiTi bus service is aimed at improving public transport.

However, like Johannesburg's bus rapid transit system Rea Vaya, MyCiTi there have been strong objections to the services from other public transport operators and, in Cape Town, from the Golden Arrow Bus Service, which has challenged its roll-out in some areas.

Golden Arrow has since signed two memorandums of understanding with the City of Cape Town and provincial government on working together to establish an integrated transport system.

Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha get services

Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha are the latest areas to receive the MyCiTi service, which will be a "top up service" meaning that existing taxi operators will still be allowed to operate alongside the buses.

The service started in 2010 and the city was criticised for focusing on affluent areas first but has in recent months expanded to other less affluent areas such as Atlantis and Imizamo Yethu in the greater Hout Bay area.

To date, R4.6bn has been invested in the service.

MiCiti buses will soon open routes to Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha for township residents there. Image: Skyscraper City

At a joint briefing with Codeta, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille said that the rollout of the N2 Express service, which includes Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha, would be the start of a process of bringing affordable, decent and quality public transport to Cape Town's residents who are living on the periphery of the city.

De Lille said that taxi associations in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain would benefit from the service, as they would be able to establish and run their own vehicle-operating companies in a joint venture with other affected operators, such as the Golden Arrow Bus Service.

"As such it is agreed that the Golden Arrow Bus Service Learning and Assessment Centre in Montana will facilitate the training of taxi drivers to upgrade their licences from code 8 to code 11," De Lille said.

Training costs fully covered

She said the training costs were estimated at R29,200 per learner and will be paid by the City. The first group of drivers will start with driving classes as soon as they have been nominated by their respective taxi associations in Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha.

Codeta General Secretary Andile Kanyi said the taxi association was happy that a solution had been found that accommodates the taxi industry.

Codeta was also pleased that the city would compensate taxi owners for losses incurred as a result of the roll-out of MyCiTi services.

Meanwhile, the municipality has adopted an ambitious integrated public transport network plan over the next 18 years which, among other things seeks to reduce the number of people who rely on private vehicles and to reduce travel times between centres significantly.

City authorities said this week that the long-term network plan was intended to meet passengers' travel demands as the city grows and population densities increase.

The R32bn city-wide integrated public transport network plan for 2032 will include 10 additional MyCiTi routes on dedicated lanes and a major transport interchange at Philippi.

Source: Business Day via I-Net Bridge