The Department of Transport in the Eastern Cape is embarking on a process to prepare a Public Transport Master Plan for the province, with the objective of improving the mobility of people who use public transport and will hold its first stakeholder meeting on Friday, 11 November 2011 at the Golf Course in East London at 9h30.
In her address during the launch of this project in October MEC Marawu stated that all stakeholders who are involved in public transport, either as service providers, operators or users would be involved in the process of preparing the master plan through a series of stakeholder workshops that are planned throughout the province.
The purpose of the stakeholder workshops will be to obtain information from the stakeholders about the current status of public transport supply and demand throughout the Eastern Cape Province and to give stakeholders an opportunity to influence any future public transport system and to ensure that it captures their aspirations.
The ultimate goal of the Master Plan is to have a reliable public transport system that satisfies the needs of the people in the province as well as visitors and tourists, with published timetables for scheduled services which operate from improved facilities such as bus termini, taxi ranks and train stations (public transport facilities)
To this end, the department has invited various stakeholders, including but not limited to Business sector representatives, Labour representatives, Public Transport Operators, State Entities involved in public transport provision and to date a number of them have responded positively to the department’s call and shown enthusiasm to fully participate in the process as it unfolds.
Further meetings will be held with District Transport Forums during February and March 2012 to discuss the current transport situation and the need for improved mobility, co-ordination and integration between the various public transport services in the Eastern Cape.
