MetroBus Drivers on Strike

Mmmm too bad. We hope that Management and the drivers sort their differences on time and get people to work.

Johannesburg Metrobus passengers were left stranded on Monday because of a strike by bus drivers over the new shift system, SABC news reported.


"Despite being requested by management to give their input on the new shifts, bus operators have not responded, and now refuse to operate these new shifts," Metrobus said in a statement.


It said there was a rescheduling process in order to improve the bus service to "meet passenger demands" which required new shift allocations.


Passengers were advised to make alternative transport arrangements until further notice.


"Management will continue to do their utmost to try and resolve these issues but as from this afternoon [Monday], no bus service will be available to passengers," Metrobus said.

MyCiTi fares shows creativity of the people behind the project though much still need to be done.

What a great idea.........if you are working at the Cape Town International Airport you will get a discounted unlimited trips of R400 per month when using MyCiti IRT. Yes, unlimited trips at only R400 per month. But the trips are not transferable, so you can not buy a ticket and give it to your mom to go to the airport. No, you can not even borrow your dad a ticket to go the CBD. But just how are they going to ensure that the owner of the ticket becomes the only person who make use of it is unclear. There are options that can be used and the following comes into mind;

• A photo of the designated user can be attached to their coupons;
• Designate users to put on their thumps on a machine that recognizes it whenever they board the bus;

View Larger Map

Though this is good for airport users, what about those who work along the route to the airport or those who work near the airport? I don't know how well the public transport in Cape Town operates but I am sure that there may be some passengers from the Cape Flats who would want to catch a bus at the Airport to the city center. Will they also given a discount as well or will they have to pay a normal price which will probably be higher?

Another good news is that children under 11 travelling along the airport route or shuttle as they call it will pay the half price, while those under 4 will travel for free.

On the airport shuttle, tickets for children aged four to 11 will cost R25.00 each – half the standard R50.00 adult fare. Children under the age of four can travel for free.

I am tempted to say that mini - taxis pioneered this idea in SA as it was when taking taxis back in Venda that I first learned about this but I know I will be wrong. I wonder if children under the age of 4 used to pay before the modern taxis came. Remember it used to be the private cars such as Chevrolet that were used as taxis in the 70s. I also ask myself why senior citizens were never given free seats but common sense tells you that its because you can not hold a senior citizen while a child who don't pay for a trip seats on the lap of the person travelling with. But why don't they offer this vulnerable group a discount? Agg...these are wish list isn't it? Why would I expect all these things to be done by taxis? Taxis do not get subsidized and the monopolistic position they have through their operating licenses discourages innovation in the industry.

Ahh...a little voice behind my head is saying to me "even PUTCO don't offer discounts to senior citizens and worse to children under 4 so why should I expect taxis to pay?". True, PUTCO buses I take don't even offer discounts to scholars. Only Metro buses and Tswane buses does offer discounts to the disabled/scholars/senior citizens and under under age children (except Metro Buses) while the one year old Rea Vaya does not offer non of that and not even a monthly ticket. MyCiti should immediately offer these discounts to these designated group.

So I ask, how do you know that I child is under the age of 4? Do you just take a look at make a personal judgement? Do you use an average height to make a judgement? Or do you require those under these ages to also have a special coupon which can be purchased with a proof of age? Mmmm...interesting.

Another great idea that made me say "wow" is the fact that the city is encouraging public transport usage by tourists.

Visitors to the city can purchase a ticket which provides one day of unlimited travel at R15.00.

Isn't that a great idea? I think its a cool and I will definitely make use of the MyCiti buses when I go to Cape Town. This just tells you how creative the people behind this project are and many cities have so much to learn from this. However, other special groups need to be included. However, I hope this will be included in the future.

UPDATE

I sent an email to Dawie Bosch asking about some of the reservations I had about MyCITI and here is our email correspondence;

Dear Mulaudzi

Thanks for the positive feedback!

MyCiTi is not at present offering concessions for scholars and senior citizens. However, we will be investigating this for future use.

Your feedback and comment in you blog is apprciated.

Dawie Bosch
Business Plan and Integration
Integrated Rapid Transit Project
City of Cape Town

Tel (021) 400-9135
Cell 082-557-8597

---

From: Erick Mulaudzi [emulaudzi@ingerop.co.za]
Sent: 02 September 2010 11:57 AM
To: Dawie Bosch
Subject: RE: Comments

Any discounts for the disabled/senior citizens and the scholars?

I recently bloged about you’re pricing on my blog and I will welcome your comments. You can also comment there for this question that I asked you. The link to the blog is found below;

http://publictransportsouthafrica.blogspot.com/2010/08/myciti-fares-shows-creativity-of-people.html

Thanks and all the best.

---

From: Dawie Bosch [mailto:Dawie.Bosch@capetown.gov.za]
Sent: 02 September 2010 07:51 AM
To: emulaudzi@ingerop.co.za
Cc: Beverley Ball
Subject: Re: Comments

Dear Mr Mulaudzi

The R400 monthly ticket is available to all. The press release merely states that this ticket "was aimed at" airport employees.

The ticket should be available for sale from 20 Sept, but. Is valid for a calendar month, so a Sept ticket will expire end of Sept.

Kind regards

Dawie Bosch
MyCiTi

Dawie Bosch
Business Plan and Integration
Integrated Rapid Transit Project
City of Cape Town

Tel (021) 400-9135
Cell 082-557-8597

---

From: Beverley Ball

Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 07:04:59 +0200

To: Dawie Bosch; Dawie Bosch

Subject: FW: Comments

Dawie

Please reply to Erick with regard to the ticket prices.

Beverley

From: Erick Mulaudzi [mailto:emulaudzi@ingerop.co.za]
Sent: 31 August 2010 12:04 PM
To: Beverley Ball
Subject: Comments

Hi Beverly,

You just recently announced that ticket prices for those who work at the Airport will be discounted. What about those who work along the Airport? And what is the definition of Airport workers….does this include those who work near the airport? I think everyone who is a commuter, irrespective of where they work should be given a discount, especially those who work along the airport. The idea is great though…cant wait to get to Cape Town.

Metrobus timetable - a nightmare.

Ask anyone who has visited Metrobus website to check their timetable and they will tell you that the timetable is so hard to understand. Besides the timetable lacking a simple map that shows the routes taken by their buses, the timetable is complicated and does not advice how someone who wants to make a connection should do that.

Take for instance myself, I stay in Windsor West and work in Rivonia and I did not know that If I want to take a bus to work I had to take a bus to town first, get off at corner of Hofmeyer Drive and Beyers Naude Drive and connect with a bus coming from Sophiatown. Just nowhere on their timetable does it says so, not even their website has anywhere where they mention where connections can be made. Even now, I can't figure out which bus from my neighborhood I will have to take to the place that I have to make the connection.

Please don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the information is not there, I am just saying one will have to sweat to figure out the timetable though I must mention that on top of the buses there is information that specifies their zone number together with where the buses are coming going, via which suburb and the destination of the buses. But that alone waste time as new passengers have to ask drivers if their destinations are covered. Take for instance a bus that goes from FOURWAYS TO SOWETO VIA BRYANSTON, a passenger who is going to Randburg will still ask the driver if the bus goes via Randburg because the bus can still cover Bryanston and head to Randburg. Take a look at Rea Vaya's bus routes map and their times and I am sure you will wish Metrobus had something similar for its users (Though the two companies are run by the City of Johannesburg, it will be wise for them to be integrated in the future to minimize competition and a huge subsidy bill. Integration of Public Transport in South Africa is also long due)

To solve this issue, I believe that Metrobus (and all other operators that receives state subsidies and preferably working together) should be forced to introduce their bus routes map which indicate their full network, bus stops and bus times which can be accessible to everyone. By everyone I am including for those passengers who find themselves taking Metrobus for the first time without planning. Such passengers can be provided with a route map indicating the timetable in the bus stops similar for Gautrain's buses (My appologies that my picture cant show clearly what I want to talk about, but the pole behind the gentleman shows that this is a Gautrain bus stop, and just below that big sign is a map showing the routes that the bus takes and the timetable. Below is an example of the route map one finds in the bus stop, courtesy of Rosebank Killarney Gazette)

If Metrobus wants to realise its vision of being "......a world-class African bus service across the greater Johannesburg metro", then surely it needs to ensure that its timetable is easy and understandable, accessible and readily available but not only for the current passengers but for visitors as well.

Should the Gautrain white calabashes be scrapped?

It has been confirmed that Gautrain white calabashes are not so Ayoba as I argued here and here. With 24000 passengers carried in the first month ( 08 June to 08 July I presume) and their website showing us the number of routes covered by these buses and their frequency I throughly calculate the average number of passengers per trip. The average number of passenger carried over a month is 870 passengers per day while the train itself carried an average of 12 903 passengers per day, short of 87 097 which was project, though the link is not yet finalized (indeed, politicians and supporters may argue that the vast number of passengers will move between Pretoria and Johannesburg). Now, I also made some calculations to see how many average passengers were carried during the peak hours if I use the information given (Frequency of trains and buses for both peak and off peak hours...and here is what I calculated and found;

Now, going back to the the question...should Bombela scrap off their service or should one have to wait and see what happens when the other stations in the Johannesburg and the Hatfield are opened? I think they Bombela in partnership with Metro Bus, City of Tshwane and Ekhurhuleni Metropolitan start encouraging their passengers to make use of their respective municipality Metro Buses. If this is not done, Bombela risk its bus service being cross subsidised by its rail service which will lead to price increases.