New buses to be seen around city soon

The go-live for the first phase of the city’s affordable public transport service is scheduled to happen before the end of this year and some of the buses are expected to be seen in the city during trial operations to test the effectiveness of the system while at the same time training the drivers to efficiently drive the buses and operate the payment systems.
Spokesperson Polokwane Municipality’s Transport Division, Rebotile Malakalaka said that Leeto la Polokwane Phase 1A consists of two trunk extension routes and two complementary routes that will serve the Seshego, Flora Park and Westenburg areas.
When finally completed during the course of next year the system will be characterised by dedicated bus lanes, smartcard payment systems, bus stops, a control centre, one median station, a layover facility, trunk extension routes and complementary routes.
Construction of dedicated bus lanes along Nelson Mandela Drive from Zebediela Street to Seshego Circle has been completed. The dedicated lanes will provide priority for the buses to ensure quality service to the users by separating the Leeto buses from the normal traffic.
A median station in the Central Business District along General Joubert Street between Thabo Mbeki and Grobler streets is under construction.
A bus depot to house 36 buses is being built for Phase 1A operations. The depot construction is currently underway and will accommodate the 12 and 9 meter buses. The depot is situated in Zone 8 on New Era Drive Street in Seshego.
Neither the bus depot nor the bus station will be ready for Go-Live 2019. Operations will be kerbside in the interim and the buses will be operated from the layover facility until the completion of the bus depot and station.
According to Malakalala, 21 buses have already arrived in Polokwane and are fitted with Automated Fare Collection (AFC) and Public Transport Management System (PTMS) devices. “The AFC devices allow passengers to use cards as the method of payment for the trip. There will be no cash payments on the bus so as to ensure safety and improved revenue management. PTMS consists of cameras that will be installed along the Leeto la Polokwane routes and facilities to monitor the movement of buses, their location and status to determine performance according to prescribed route schedules and to identify any operational issues,” Malakalala explained and added that the PTMS system will be managed from the Leeto la Polokwane Control Centre located on the East Wing of the New Peter Mokaba Stadium.

Story/photo: BARRY VILJOEN
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