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Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Image: Buses Collect Dust

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Buses Collect DustNelson Mandela Bay’s IPTS buses collecting dust and not passengers.

The IPTS (Integrated Public Transport System) is also variously referred to as the BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) the PTP (Public Transport Plan) and also CITR (Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan) – no wonder the public are confused and not cohesively united in demanding that ratepayer money is spent properly and on time.

The public transport system received a ‘boost’ ahead of the 2010 World Cup when President Blatter demanded safe transport for football fans which resulted in a flurry of activity as local politicians bowed and scraped to their new master.

Post 2010 World Cup the plan was still being ‘studied’ in March 2011 with the release of the Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan.

The mission of the PTP is: “To provide an efficient, safe, affordable, sustainable and accessible multi-modal public transport system which supports social and economic development to ensure optimal mobility and improved quality of life for the residents and users of the transport system in the metropolitan area”.

The long-term development proposals for the public transport system are based on the results from an analysis of several possible scenarios. The conclusions from the scenario analysis are that an integrated public transport system with scheduled services, based on trunk bus routes with complementary feeder and main route systems will, in the next 10 years, best serve the communities of NMB. The Public transport system will have the Khulani Corridor (Motherwell – Njoli – Korsten – CBD) as the back bone onto which the other services will be built. An expanded railway system will not attract enough passengers in the next 10 years to justify the large investments required.

Six years down the line we have crumbling businesses after their parking was taken away on major arterial routes, no buses in operation and a major financial burden with no-one in charge actually having the tight testicles to make THAT difficult decision to abandon the project or throw many more billions at it from the purse of an already endangered and skittish species – the ratepayer.

Some of the many articles on the IPTS albatross that hangs on the necks of ratepayers:

If you want to read many more of the hundreds of articles then just do a search in the box above for IPTS or CLICK HERE

My favourite image from the IPTS saga appears below:

Mayor Zanoxolo Wayile and Deputy Mayor Nancy Sihlwayi
With the Mayor at the wheel, kick back and relax with forty winks – you are assured of getting to your destination safely.

Date: October 15, 2015 13:39

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Port Elizabethan

This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.