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Blog : 11 August 2016 (Road vs Rail Transport)
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We take a look at the number of journeys undertaken by South Africans via Rail and Road each month. Road transport excldues journeys undertaken via Taxi's, metropolitan buses and rentals of vehicles excluding drivers. The results below
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Why look at these figures?
During a recent trip to South East Asia, one thing was very clear, they focussing a massive amount of public spending on transport infrastructure. And these countries are building massive apartment buidlings close to the city centres, to stop the well known phenomon that we in South Africa are experiencing, known as urban sprawl.
In Malaysia for example, just outside of Kuala Lumpur, massive apartment buildings are going up all over the place, and when you look around, you see various train tracks and stations already operating close by, and new stations and tracks being built to accomodate increased traffic that will flow from all these new high rise apartments.
While they have very wide highways that are jam packed during peak hours, their rail system, and the new spending on expanding the rail network, is taking a lot of commuters off these highways as the trains are full most of the day.
In Malaysia for example, just outside of Kuala Lumpur, massive apartment buildings are going up all over the place, and when you look around, you see various train tracks and stations already operating close by, and new stations and tracks being built to accomodate increased traffic that will flow from all these new high rise apartments.
While they have very wide highways that are jam packed during peak hours, their rail system, and the new spending on expanding the rail network, is taking a lot of commuters off these highways as the trains are full most of the day.
This got us thinking, what's the number of people taking to the road vs the rail like in South Africa? South Africa has an ageing rail network, and the only new rail system that came online in recent years is the Gautrain (which to be honest is a drop in the ocean of South Africa and Gauteng's traffic problems).
Thousands upon thousands of people are stuck in back and spirit breaking traffic between Johannesburg and Pretoria every single day. One has got to question why the Gautrain did not build a track and station somewhere in Pretoria East? As the majority of traffic in the evening on the N1 north is between Louis Botha offramp in Centurion and Atterbury offramp in Pretoria East. But let's not digress.
The bar chart below shows the number of passenger journeys undertaken each month, by rail and by road.
Thousands upon thousands of people are stuck in back and spirit breaking traffic between Johannesburg and Pretoria every single day. One has got to question why the Gautrain did not build a track and station somewhere in Pretoria East? As the majority of traffic in the evening on the N1 north is between Louis Botha offramp in Centurion and Atterbury offramp in Pretoria East. But let's not digress.
The bar chart below shows the number of passenger journeys undertaken each month, by rail and by road.
The trend in the decline of number of passenger joruneys as a percentage of total passenger journeys undertaken is clear to see. In 2008 rail accounted for 70% of the total number of passenger journeys undertake, by end of 2015 this was sitting at 62.2%, and so far for 2016, only 58.6% of passenger journeys undertaken is done via rail.
The bar chart below shows the average monthly passenger journeys undertaken for each year. In 2008 an average of 50,6million journeys where undertaken per month via rail, and 21.7million taken via road. In 2016 so far, only 34million journeys are undertaken per month via rail and 24million under taken via road. This shows a clear increase in the number of journeys undertaken via road transport and a sharp decline in passenger journeys via rail.
Yearly Trend
What is interesting to note is that while the number of rail journeys undertaken has declined over the years, the number of journeys undertaken via road transport has increased slowly (as more and more people buy cars for personal use). But in total the number of journeys as measured by Stats SA's land transport survey has been declining steadily, from over 75million a month in total in 2009 to under 60million in total per month so far in 2016.
From this one can either make the conculsion that more and more people are using mini bus taxi's and rapid bus systems such as A RE YENG (in Pretoria) and REA VAYA (in Johannesburg), as these passengers are not counted by this survey, or people are travelling less, due to the increased costs of doing so. Needless and non essential travel that used to be undertaken might be considered more carefully by commuters as cost of transport increases.
From this one can either make the conculsion that more and more people are using mini bus taxi's and rapid bus systems such as A RE YENG (in Pretoria) and REA VAYA (in Johannesburg), as these passengers are not counted by this survey, or people are travelling less, due to the increased costs of doing so. Needless and non essential travel that used to be undertaken might be considered more carefully by commuters as cost of transport increases.
While urban sprawl continues around big city centres, road traffic will continue to increase, as rail networks and stations are not reaching newly developed areas. Leaving government with a continious problem of solving traffic problems. While city renewal projects undertaken in Johannesburg and Pretoria for example has made a difference, it is not signifcant enough to lure people into moving into and staying in city centres itself. As its seen as unsafe and dirty and not a condusive environment for children to grow up in.
Until these issues are addressed and vasts amounts of people migrate into major city centres, or a massive expansion of railway networks and stations are undertaken in order to improve ease of access to railway services, South Africa will continue to sit with a problem that is a hurdle to better and sustained economic growth.
Traffic is not only irritating, it is extremely costly to the economy. (Think cost of fuel, wear and tear on vehicles and the concept of time is money, time spent in traffic is time not being economically active or productive). South Africa needs a rapid rethink to solve it's traffic problems. And perhaps a few lessons can be learnt from South East Asian countries such as Malaysia.
Until these issues are addressed and vasts amounts of people migrate into major city centres, or a massive expansion of railway networks and stations are undertaken in order to improve ease of access to railway services, South Africa will continue to sit with a problem that is a hurdle to better and sustained economic growth.
Traffic is not only irritating, it is extremely costly to the economy. (Think cost of fuel, wear and tear on vehicles and the concept of time is money, time spent in traffic is time not being economically active or productive). South Africa needs a rapid rethink to solve it's traffic problems. And perhaps a few lessons can be learnt from South East Asian countries such as Malaysia.
