Africa's first high-speed train

[pampango]

Source: Global Post

South Africa will soon have the Gautrain — Africa's first high-speed train that will link Johannesburg and Pretoria to the international airport. Foreign visitors flying into Johannesburg for the World Cup can expect to be met by slick new trains that will whisk them from the airport to the city’s posh Sandton area in a zippy 15 minutes.

Despite earlier reports that the airport rail link wouldn’t open until midway through the soccer championships, it now looks certain to launch in May, with enough time to finish testing and be ready to meet the thousands of fans arriving in June for the soccer tournament.

The Gautrain — a composite of Gauteng province and train — is a transit experiment, the first of its kind in Africa, will have a top speed of 100 miles per hour and is intended to help transform Johannesburg by getting car-loving commuters onto an environmentally friendly rail system.

The airport link is the first phase of the $3.25-billion project that will by mid-2011 see Johannesburg’s downtown connected by high-speed rail to Pretoria, the nation's capital 38 miles north. Greater Johannesburg has a population of 10 million and Pretoria has 2.3 million. The two cities are rapidly sprawling towards each other and the new train is expected to further the urbanization along the transport corridor.

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/south-africa/100216/johannesburg-gautrain

[onehandle]

1. As America slides further back into the 20th century. nt

[WriteDown]

3. Per the article

THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER

But Vaughan Mostert, a senior lecturer in transport economics at the University of Johannesburg, questions the project and thinks the focus should have been on providing better service on the city’s existing but highly disorganized and outdated network of buses and trains, before shelling out for new infrastructure.
“It is really not an appropriate solution to the problems that we face,” he says. “Against the cost of putting in the system, the benefits or the amount of cars that it is going to take off the road is hardly worth the effort.”
Mostert thinks that the Gautrain’s long-term success will be hindered by the lack of a supporting public transit system — for example, a properly planned feeder system that will take people to the Gautrain’s 10 stations. While there will be a network of 125 “luxury buses” taking passengers to stations from the surrounding suburbs, Mostert thinks it’s not enough.
What Johannesburg city really needs, he says, is an official transit authority to oversee all public transportation in the city and develop a comprehensive plan with official routes and schedules, a common practice in North American cities. Currently public transport in Johannesburg is “a disjointed, uncoordinated, irrational service, run by a multitude of different operators,” says Mostert.

[pitohui]

2. this will be nice

i had to arrange for a driver on my previous visit, would love to try this train

[DebbieCDC]

4. When does the US get one?

[Sultana]

5. YAY, go South Africa!

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: