EXCITEMENT over the City’s looping night bus service for patrons of First Thursdays events was short-lived after those, who planned their evening activities around the service, were left disappointed when it was withdrawn at the last minute, the Berea Mail reports,
The Connect031 service had planned to transport patrons to events in Glenwood, Station Drive and Florida Road in Morningside, as a case-study on the night, but was called off an hour before it was due to depart, leaving prospective passengers dumbfounded. According to social media posts, the service had been withdrawn because certain taxi associations had allegedly objected to not being included in the service.
Thami Manyathi, Head of the eThekwini Transport Authority, said the city had taken the decision to postpone the Connect031 service to ensure that all relevant stakeholders were engaged with on the testing of the service.
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The Connect031, powered by GO!Durban, was part of the eThekwini Transport Authority’s pilot programme to research demand and uptake for public transport to help support the economy that surrounds the activation of arts and culture and local lifestyle venues that host special events and late night trading on the first Thursday of the month.
“We know that Station Drive has a challenge with parking, and this service may help alleviate that by decentralising the parking – and making the other venues available to patrons. We are also hoping that this provides us with a best practice case-study for future night and looping services for other major City events. But most importantly we need to understand how transport can be a driver or catalyst for these kinds of SMME economic activities.”
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