Cape Town - More than 11 500 passengers from Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha have commuted on the MyCiTi N2 Express buses since the service was relaunched two weeks ago.
Mitchells Plain Integrated Development Forum secretary Duwayne Jacobs said he used the service a couple of times to the Civic Centre.
He said people were happy. “It was just one or two that complained about the long buses not going smoothly when they are on the steep hill.”
Before it was relaunched on February 19, the service had been out of operation since a dispute arose among the route’s taxi industry shareholders when their contracts ended in the first half of 2019.
Negotiations between the City and members of the N2 Express joint venture operating company collapsed.
The company comprises the Route Six Taxi Association, Golden Arrow Bus Services and Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta).
Urban mobility Mayco member Rob Quintas said: “I could not be happier to see the positive uptake of the N2 Express since we have reinstated the service. The City’s Urban Mobility Directorate worked really hard to get the buses back on the road and now finally the residents of Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha have an additional choice for a safe and reliable form of public transport.”
He said since the relaunch of the service on February 19, until February 28, 7 028 passengers from Khayelitsha and 4 474 from Mitchells Plain had made use of the N2 Express bus service.
ANC transport spokesperson Lulama Mvimbi said without the service, the public transport in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain was weakened.
“Ours is to call on the City to never allow the service to collapse again. We will follow up with questions in the legislature regarding the MyCiTi operations to get a full understanding of the efficacy of the service,” he said.
GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron said the re-introduction of the N2 Express service was welcomed, but the City must evaluate the supply versus the demand.
“With no rail service the demand for public transport must now far exceed the relatively small supply being offered by the N2 Express. We must be careful about celebrating token gestures,” Herron said.
He said a real public transport solution would be focused on increasing supply, particularly while the rail service was not operating.
Quintas said they aimed to have the whole fleet of 34 buses operational by March 19. The buses would travel to the Civic Centre station in the Cape Town CBD via the N2 freeway.
Phasing of routes as follows: Phase 1: February 19-March 4 (D01, D02, D04). Phase 2: March 5-March 18 (D01, D02, D04). Phase 3: March 19 onwards (D01, D02, D03, D04).