Gautrain: Link to Park Station likely to open in March

[Steve Appleton]

From Business Day, 10 January 2012. http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/C ... ?id=162266

Gautrain link to Park Station likely to open in March
Passenger numbers on the Gautrain, the high-speed rail link between Johannesburg and Pretoria, are expected to grow by almost a fifth once the link between Park Station and Rosebank opens in March

NICKY SMITH
Published: 2012/01/10 08:58:16 AM

PASSENGER numbers on the Gautrain, the high-speed rail link between Johannesburg and Pretoria, are expected to grow by almost a fifth once the link between Park Station and Rosebank opens in March. The service between the two hubs was not part of the official commissioning of the train in August last year after the Gauteng government declared a dispute with the operator, Bombela. The dispute related to the volume of water seeping into the underground tunnel between Rosebank and Park Station, which was greater than was stipulated in the contract.

Bombela and the lead contractor in the project, Murray & Roberts Holdings , have had to inject liquid cement into the rock surrounding the tunnel to slow the flow of water into the tunnel. "Work in the tunnel is progressing well," said Barbara Jensen, spokeswoman of the Gautrain Management Agency, which is run by the province. "All indications are that we will have Park Station operational by the latest by mid-March … we may have it ready earlier than that but are careful not to create false expectations by citing an earlier date," she said.

Gautrain Management Agency CEO Jack van der Merwe said the link would account for as much as 18% of traffic on the network once it reached full operational volumes.

Bombela expected to have much of the engineering work completed by the end of this month, said spokeswoman Kelebogile Machaka. "Once the engineering work is done, it will be followed by a period of refitting of the electrical, signalling and communication systems, and then by system testing, before the Rosebank-central business district line can be opened, " she said. This would include getting certification from the Railway Safety Regulator, which requires a rigorous process of testing.

The Gautrain had been transporting about 1-million passengers a month, with about 20% of this volume being to OR Tambo International Airport, she said.

The completion of the rehabilitation work on the underground tunnel would be good news for the project, which has struggled to offer uninterrupted services, having battled cable theft, electrical problems and three feeder-bus drivers’ strikes. Yesterday, Sapa reported that Gautrain bus drivers were planning a strike that might disrupt services.