The much anticipated first day was a great success: Commuters queued to take the first ever train at 5am; radio and TV stations broadcasted live from the stations and the train made the headlines in all newspapers. Sadly, not all news stories were positive and The Star claimed that in a race during rush hour, a car driver had beaten a Gautrain commuter and arrived earlier and spent less money.
But worse for the image of the Gautrain than a bad article was that despite heavy security, on the second day of operations some copper cables were stolen and the service had to be suspended. The Operator responded swiftly and put a bus replacement service in place, but even though it worked well, the damage was done.
Then, on the first weekend, hundreds of South Africans, many of whom had never been on public transport before, took their families on a ride on the train and especially the kids were fascinated by the shiny train and its tunnels.
Sadly, the weekend euphoria did not last long and in the second week of operations, the Gautrain’s feeder bus drivers went on an unplanned and unauthorised strike demanding higher wages and better working hours.
And a couple of days ago, a train had some problems with its electronics leaving hundreds of commuters stuck on the train for hours. On top of all this, it turned out that the ticket pricing structure was not in compliance with South Africa’s Consumer Protection Act and the Operator was asked to review its prices.
Despite being a public disaster, from a personal perspective, the train has certainly made my life easier even though I don’t take it every day.
The Sandton Station is 10 minutes away from my house and in Pretoria a feeder bus stops 100m away from the Embassy. But while I have enjoyed being able to read the paper in the morning or blog a bit (like now), taking the train indeed take a lot longer and is more expensive than driving.
But what I find quite annoying is the rather comprehensive set of Gautrain Rules and the legions of employees who eagerly over-enforce them. I have been told off for chewing gum, drinking water, and leaving a newspaper on the train (I always liked finding papers on the tube in London...). While at times this is only mildly irritating, other times it becomes extremely annoying; for example when you stand 20cm behind the yellow line and are told to please move back further - put the bloody line in a different place then!
On the plus side, because of the ridiculous number of security officers patrolling the stations and the carriages every two minutes (not joking), I do feel quite safe taking the train. Also, thanks to tough Key Performance Indicators for the Gautrain Operator (98% of trains have to be on time), the trains actually run on time and this morning I missed my 8.08am train because I only arrived at the platform at 8.09am.
Sadly the same KPIs do not seem to apply to bus drivers and I found that a large part of my journey is not actually spent travelling, but waiting for the feeder bus to leave. It is only a small consolation that when they do leave, the buses drive off all together in beautiful order – Number 1 goes first, then Number 2, then Number 3...
Unexpected scenery - well, nothingness - between Joburg and Pretoria!
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