The City of Johannesburg’s MMC for Transport councillor, Nonhlanhla Makhuba; and MMC for Development Planning, Richard Funzela Ngobeni, officiated a sod-turning ceremony for Phase 1B of the Rea Vaya Selby Depot on 21 February and handed over the Booysens layover.
Both the Selby depot and Booysens layover form part of Rea Vaya Phase 1B projects.
The Booysens layover was completed last year. The development of the Booysens bus layover was conceived to cater for daytime requirements of the Phase 1B Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) operations which are on the Soweto to CBD route, via Auckland Park.
It is also meant to accommodate the assembly of the Phase 1B bus fleet and also serve as a dispatch point for the return trip to the main Meadowlands depot.
The City of Joburg formally handed over this facility to Phase 1B bus operating company, Litsamaiso.
Makhuba said, “The layover includes daytime facilities for drivers including a change room, kitchen and recreational area. But most of the 22 000kms² is covered with concrete paving for bus parking. It also has a WiFi network for important data download on operations, and revenue information when passengers tap on and off with their cards on feeder buses.”
The Selby depot is intended to serve as the main inner city depot.
The first phase entails the construction of a perimeter fence, bus parking area platform, site access road, administration building, main parking area driveway upgrade and the construction of the main entrance road into the Depot, which runs along the Pat Mbatha road intersection with Ignatius Street.
Once completed, the Depot’s main features will include an administration building, maintenance building, washing and refuelling bays and Intelligent Transport System (ITS) control centre.
The administration block has ablution facilities, a canteen, offices and staff and visitor parking. The depot will be utilised for major and minor maintenance of buses, by maintaining in-service buses and out of service buses. It is anticipated that the entire project of the Selby BRT Bus Depot will be completed by 2018 at an estimated cost of R250 million.
Ngobeni concluded, “Public transport and related infrastructure has been seen as an instrument for change. With initiatives encouraging transit services to function at an optimum level and help contribute to reshaping [the] urban form for further development in the inner city and the City as a whole.”
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