Opening of the Eastbound Taxi and Bus Lane

The rehabilitation and upgrade of the East bound carriageways of the N2 from the M5 to Borcherd`s Quarry allows us to complement the taxi/bus lanes on the westbound carriageways with those on the Eastbound road.

Once in operation, the taxi/bus lanes will cut up to forty (40) minutes off certain of the return trips, and particularly those to the densely populated south eastern suburbs.

Minister of Transport, Robin Carlisle, said that this was a very necessary addition to the Metro's armoury of public transport. It was important that progress was being made in respect of taxi/bus lanes, because the rest of public transport was deteriorating rapidly.
He quoted the National Minister of Transport, who was quoted in the NCOP on 22.4.2010 as follows "If we do not act now, that is, recapitalise our rail fleet, the urban passenger rail system could collapse in all our cities within the next decade".

Carlisle emphasised the public transport crisis that was occurring in Cape Town, particularly in respect of rail. And how the new bus lanes would help, but not reverse the crisis.

The upgrade was 8.5 kms in length, and had cost R153 million. It had involved some very tricky engineering.

It was the biggest Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) road contract ever awarded, and the Minister congratulated Vusela Construction on this achievement. Two hundred and ninety (290) job opportunities had been created, and the construction had required 104000 man-days of labour.

This was the second of the 2010 projects to be completed, and all others were on time.