The City of Cape Town’s Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network (IRPTN) is set to undo the city’s apartheid spatial legacy and radically transform public transport in Cape Town, offering integration and inter-operability for the benefit of all commuters.
As Councillor Brett Herron, Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Roads and Stormwater, Councillor, told delegates at the Southern African Transport Conference this July, ‘the IRPTN will change the way in which the city moves, works, plans and plays.’
‘Not unlike other Southern African cities, Cape Town grapples – on many fronts – with the legacy of Apartheid spatial planning: our legacy is a sprawling city with low densities and poorer communities located on the outskirts of the city, far removed from economic opportunities and excluded from many of the city’s key social amenities.’
‘The implementation of the IRPTN in Cape Town, and the devolution of rail planning, bus subsidy contracts and public transport licensing presents us with the chance to finally plan and implement a fully integrated public transport network that is commuter-focused.’
The devolution of these functions to the City of Cape Town is likely to come into effect early in 2013.
Earlier this year the City announced the establishment of the City of Cape Town’s Transport Authority (TA) for October 2012, which is the next critical step towards achieving sustainable, integrated and efficient public transport across the metropolitan area. The TA will manage the operations and infrastructure of a multi-modal public transport network in a way that is sustainable, efficient and sensible.
With devolution and the TA in place, Cape Town will benefit from:
- One public transport network
- One ticket
- One timetable
- One unified, dignified standard for infrastructure and operations
- One brand
The City is collaborating with National Department of Transport, Treasury, and the Provincial Government in order to achieve these goals, recently welcomed the improvement measures announced by Metrorail. Rail is viewed as the backbone of public transport in Cape Town and plays an important role in supporting economic development and social inclusion. It is a critical building block in the local and regional economy.
‘We are working as hard as we can, and as prudently as possible, with all the public transport stakeholders in Cape Town to put the current fragmented and often inconvenient public transport system behind us and to usher in a fully functional public transport service that will support economic and social inclusion and provide convenient and enhanced affordable mobility,’ said Herron.
