Eastern Cape Transport, Roads and Public Works MEC Thandiswa Marawu saluted the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Municipality and all relevant role players for delivering an efficient public transport service through the Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS) during the 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations with the use of the 25 articulated busses and other public transport services.
Marawu was delivering her policy 2013/14 policy speech at the Eastern Cape Legislature in Bhisho this afternoon.
On 21 January 2013, operations began on seven identified routes within the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area. The main routes are around the so-called triangle between Govan Mbeki Avenue, Kempston Road and Harrower Road/Fettes Street, between the CBD and Nelson Mandela.
Metropolitan University, between CBD and the Airport, between the CBD and Greenacres Shopping Centre and there are two routes in Uitenhage between KwaNobuhle and the Uitenhage CBD. The other route is between the Port Elizabeth CBD and the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) which is being operated by a solo bus.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality entered into a contract with a company called Transbay to operate these services. Transbay is an operating company jointly owned by Algoa Bus Company and Kyoscan, which is representing the minibus taxi industry.
The service is still very new, but trends are beginning to emerge that passenger numbers are picking up. For February 2013 approximately 6 500 passengers made use of the service.
Negotiations will start shortly for the first phase roll-out of the IPTS.
“Although the implementation of the IPTS is the responsibility of the Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City Metros, the department participates in the project structures in an advisory and oversight capacity,” said Marawu.
“On behalf of the transport family, I would also like to commend our traffic officers for the good work that they have done during the 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations tournament, which was held in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro earlier this year,” she added.
Special attention was paid to all roads leading to Port Elizabeth through:
- conducting high visibility patrols
- providing an efficient emergency response to road users
- providing traffic law enforcement and traffic control
- conducting public information sharing
- road safety education and awareness programmes.
The joint operations during the tournament in the Nelson Mandela Bay resulted in the arrest of 48 people for various offences, including drunken driving, motorists driving without licenses, possession of unlicensed firearms, failure to stop when stopped by a traffic officer.
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