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Engineering News reports that according to the Automobile Association (AA), proposed route extensions to the Gautrain must be rejected by the Gauteng provincial government, as this will perpetuate a system which “caters for the minority of citizens who don’t need it, instead of the mass market which does”.
The AA has made a detailed submission relating to the proposed extensions of the Gauteng Rapid Rail Integrated Network or, as it is better known, the Gautrain. In its submission, the AA highlighted several key factors it believed negated the extension of Gautrain, among them current low demand, and the fact that the project’s economic viability could not be established within reasonable risk parameters. “Simply put, the Gautrain doesn’t carry enough passengers currently – certainly not as many as it had projected when it started,” the association noted. “Spending valuable financial resources now to continue with a system that doesn’t have demand, at the expense of better, more efficient and more affordable transport does not make any sense. We are in favour of alternatives that provide solutions to vehicle usage, and which reduce pollution and congestion, but the Gautrain is not that solution,” the AA argued. It also noted that low use of the Gautrain was putting additional pressure on the Gauteng province’s transport budget, which effectively meant that other transport options were not properly funded, again disadvantaging the mass market.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
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