Gautrain now good to go — Mashatile

gauteng finance and economic affairs mec paul mashatile says a final agreement on the gautrain project will be wrapped up by the second week of next month, making it possible for construction to finally get under way.

although sources close to the project expressed scepticism on the june date, saying a mid-july date was more realistic, last thursday’s announcement was reassuring to those who want the project to get off the ground, more so after government and the bombela consortium — which won the bid to run the project — failed to reach financial closure in january.

with the 2010 world cup looming, the two sides signed an early works agreement that allowed for procurement of land and the clearance of utilities from properties along the route while negotiations continued.

mashatile told business leaders in johannesburg that negotiations would “not be allowed to drag on indefinitely”.

“we have made it clear that the bombela consortium and government officials will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week if necessary to reach final agreement.

“we have released reserve bidder gauliwe consortium, and we have put in our order for the trains with bombardier. there is no turning back now. gautrain has reached a state of no return,” he said.

gauliwe consortium, which included south african builder grinaker-lta, was paid an undisclosed retainer during negotiations with bombela to ensure specialised staff would be available should discussions with bombela fail.

mashatile said he had returned that morning from london, where a project committee approved the detailed design for the gautrain’s cars and engine.

“i feel very confident that the concessionaire will be able to deliver service comparable to world-class standards. bombardier, who is making our train, has just signed a £45m contract to provide trains for a new section of the london underground.”

mashatile said the two groups had been able to “get to the bottom of the critical issues, and separate them from the nice-to-haves”. the sticking point for negotiations was over which group would carry the various risks for aspects of the project, such as cutting into the bottom line through failure to meet projected commuter targets.



he said the project, which is expected to create 120000 formal and informal jobs and contribute 1% to sa’s gross domestic product, had two different imperatives: to stimulate gauteng’s economy and to form the backbone of an integrated transport system to ease congestion on provincial roads.

“do not believe those who say it is part of an elite system,” he said. “the province intends to ensure that there is integration between gautrain, its feeder systems, and metrorail, and that the commuter rail system is run according to the same rules as the gautrain — reliability, safety and affordability.

“trains must be on time. if a metrorail train is meant to arrive at 6.10am and it arrives at 6.40am those workers will be late,” said mashatile.

the metrorail schedule is to dovetail with the gautrain schedule, enabling use of both services by commuters.

earlier this month transnet handed over metrorail, which is running at a r120m a year loss amid growing commuter dissatisfaction over delivery, to the national transport department to run.

mashatile said a lack of engineers presented the biggest challenge to the planned overhaul of infrastructure.