Road-based travel by
commuters constitutes 87% of all commuter trips with private vehicles and bus and
minibus-taxi services constituting 50% and 37% respectively. Public transport constitutes
approximately 50% of all transport in the CMA.Public
transport service operators currently use ageing buses, taxis and rail rolling stock.
Busses and minibus taxis are the dominant vehicular modes of
transport for commuters from the south east and currently make up 37% of all modes of
transport.
In peak periods, 43% of the capacity of buses and 59% of
minibus-taxis’ capacity is utilised. Poor integration between modes of public
transport, namely buses, rail and mini-bus taxis, contributes to overcrowding and
congestion.
There has been a curtailment of services by bus and rail
operators. Trains on mainline routes do not operate any later than 20h00 or earlier than
05h00. Of the 900 bus routes or route combinations offered, half have one bus trip
scheduled per day.
Rail and bus services receive subsidies. These subsidies have
increased at an average rate of 11.1% pa and 17.7% pa respectively between 1990/91 and
1998/99. In the 1998/9 financial year, the annual subsidy to Cape Metrorail Services was
about R255 million or equivalent to R2.04 per 16km passenger trip. The bus service
received an annual subsidy of R160 million, equivalent to R5.52 per 15 km passenger trip.
Mini-bus taxi operators are not subsidised.
The responsibility of managing public transport is split between
various authorities and organisations, e.g. South African Rail Commuter Corporation,
National Department of Transport, PAWC and CMC.
The continuation of low-density land use development further
reduces access to public transport.
In 1998 there were 587 incidents of robbery and 279 assaults
recorded on the metropolitan trains. There are no current statistics for murder and rape,
however for the period 1995 to
1998 there were 49 murders and 82 incidents of rape out of a
total of 2 674 incidents of crime. In 1998 a total of 2 211 arrests were made on public
transport.
