Acting Metrobus managing director Lawrence Maqekoane said more than one third of the company’s aging fleet will be replaced with modern, low-floor and dual-fuel green buses.
“These buses will advance the City’s job creation and low carbon economy agenda. Tenderers [sic] will be required to maximise local content, thus creating local jobs, and the buses use biogas and diesel.”
He said the decision for Metrobus to use biogas was due to a number of studies that had indicated enormous potential for the production of biogas from City waste sources such as landfill sites, sewer plants and grass cutting by City Parks.
The procurement of these buses will be going hand-in-hand with the modernisation of the fare collection system and the restructuring of the relationship between Metrobus and the City of Johannesburg.
“We want to make sure that when the new buses arrive, they can be reliable and be part of the City’s offering of quality, affordable public transport”, said Maqekoane.
It is further envisaged that these new buses will operate at increased frequencies and over longer operating hours, along a number of key public transport corridors, thus supporting the City’s transit-orientated development strategy.
In addition, the City is working in partnership with the University of Johannesburg and the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI), to refine the technology for bio-digesters that can use grass and other non-food agricultural products to produce fuel. The production of these crops has significant job creation potential, without harming food security.
