The City of Ekurhuleni mayor, Clr Mondli Gungubele, recently officially opened the innovative Transport Management Centre (TMC) in Kempton Park. The TMC will manage traffic flow, public transport, safety and security in the metro.
“The R16-million, state-of-the-art TMC will start monitoring all the existing Ekurhuleni bus services, which will form part of the Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network (IRPTN), by the end of March,” says Gungubele.
Ekurhuleni IRPTN Intelligent Transportation Systems divisional head, Tommie Snyman, explains the Automated Fare Collection (AFC) system will be managed by individuals with financial backgrounds who will assist with the reconciliation of all the revenue collection of the Harambee Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
“The Advance Public Transport Management System (APTMS) is essentially the key to public transport operations, as it includes the correct scheduling for all the buses and the monitoring of the buses, while ensuring all the CCTV camera footage is supervised from the TMC,” says Snyman.
“Therefore, we will be looking at schedulers, bus controllers and security personnel in this regard.”
Provision has been made to accommodate Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) officials in the TMC, to allow them to assist with law enforcement.
Maintained by Opitec (Pty) Ltd in South Africa, the new wall-mounted technology is the first of its kind to be installed on the African continent.
The TMC will ultimately form part of the municipality’s long-term strategy to establish a Unified Command Centre (UCC).
