Gautrain continues to face problems as the taxpayer continues to fork out more money.

Despite the Gautrain Project being the biggest single infrastructural project in Africa; presently hovering under R30 Billion, replies to questions that I posed to the Minister indicate that there have been an unacceptable 11 disruptions in 2011. Of these 8 were associated with the Concession agreement not being properly fulfilled. The Minister admits that the number of passengers that were affected cannot be determined with any accuracy – another admission of incompetence and failure by his Ministry on this project. Unbelievably and unacceptably, records and statistics in this regard are not kept. 

The other non-Concession related disruptions were because of the unprotected bus driver strikes in August and October when no passengers could travel by bus. In the case of the other disruptions bus services were used to replace train services when interrupted. The replies indicate that in these cases “the impact was thus minimal on passengers’ ability to complete their trips.” However, the Minister cannot substantiate this statement as he admits that passengers that were affected cannot be determined with any accuracy. To add salt to this wound, the replies indicate that no alternative services were provided during the three days of the bus driver strike action.

Throughout all this inconvenience and unacceptable service delivery it is the taxpayer that continues to get the short end of the stick whilst, as indicated by the replies, the Gauteng Provincial Government had no financial losses whilst the Concessionaire collects and retains all fare revenue.  The non-strike related disruption incidents were all “bread and butter” issues which should have been resolved by the Concessionaire – these disruptions should never have happened. Disruptions because of cable thefts, signal cable theft, tunnel flooding and overhead electrical system failures leaves one wondering how all this can take place when so much of the taxpayer’s money has already been spent.

In reply to my questions with regards plans that have been put in place to prevent any further breakdowns; the Minister did not answer the questions except for indicating that plans “to prevent service interruptions are developed and managed in accordance with the Concession

It is clear that, as things stand, the Gautrain will continue to be riddled with these types of problems as it is presently experiencing. I will be writing to the Minister in this regard and will be posing additional questions to enquire what proactive actions are to take place as this situation cannot be left to continue.