DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT: WHAT’S NEW BY JESSIE TAYLOR
TRANSPORT MONTH:
Shaping the South African transport sector
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Transport that meets the public’s needs Based on the 2020 National Household Travel Survey, around 35% of the population uses public transport to commute to work or educational institutions. More than 10 million individuals made use of taxis.
While maintaining roads and railway lines may seem a simple task, ensuring South Africans have a reliable transport network requires innovation and extensive planning.
There has been a gradual decrease in the use of public transport, from 5,4 million in 2013 to 4,7 million in 2020. Around 35% of workers used public transport. Of these commuters, more than 80% used taxis.
(1,4 million to 500 000). This could be in part due to the length of travel times. The survey reported that in 2020, workers who used public transport experienced a long travel time in the morning to access their workplace; train users travelled for 107 minutes, bus travellers spent 84 minutes travelling, and taxi users travelled 63 minutes. To encourage further rail use, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has vowed to improve the performance of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) through several programmes.
Safe, accessible, and affordable public transport is essential to socio-economic development as it enables the population to access work and reduce poverty levels.
There has been an increase in the use of taxi transport (from 9,8 million to 11,4 million households), but there was a decrease in those who used buses (from 2,9 million to 2,1 million) and trains
Minister Mbalula has said the rail agency is repairing and reopen passenger rail corridors following vandalism during the pandemic. He added that security measures would be introduced
illions of South Africans rely on public transport to access essential services or commute to and from employment opportunities. Managing the intricate roads and rail network that form the public transport system falls to the national Department of Transport.
20 | Public Sector Leaders | October 2021
