WITH bus, taxi and rail operating from the transport hub, Rea Vaya’s busy, colourful and attractive Westgate Station stands out.

ON a cold Johannesburg morning in mid-winter, just after peak hour, Westgate Station looks deserted, but Sizwe Ngwenya, a Rea Vaya ambassador, says this is just a lull in traffic.

"Don't be fooled by the station being empty … It's an hour after peak hour," he says. The station is "always busy".

'The station is always busy,' says Rea Vaya ambassador Sizwe Ngwenya

"There are nearly 1 500 people who pass through this station on a daily basis," he adds. "It gets hectic during the [World Cup] games as you can board buses to Ellis Park and Soccer City from here. Just the other day, we had Dutch fans blowing their vuvuzelas and sampling the cuisine from the ladies across the road."

Rea Vaya's Westgate Station, on the southwestern edge of the inner city, is part of a much larger transport hub where daily commuters and football spectators alike can catch a bus, a taxi or a train, all in one place.

Here, on the corner of Anderson Street and Pat Mbatha Bus and Taxi Way, Metrobus, Metrorail and minibus taxis ply their trade alongside the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses.

But it is the Rea Vaya station that really stands out. All BRT stations are covered in commissioned artworks, with three artists doing duty at Westgate. They are Molefe Thwala, Anthea Moys and Dingaan Shoai. The three sections of the station are colourful, with graffiti-like images etched on to the stained glass.

'The works reflect small moments that I have witnessed in the city,' says artist Anthea Moys

Thwala focuses on the city's skyline, with buildings and shack settlements making up his art. He says of the design: "The work was both inspired by the formal built environment of Johannesburg as well as the informal and illegal practices of challenging these structures by means of graffiti."

Speaking of her art, Moys says: "The works reflect small moments that I have witnessed in the city and connect it with a broader 'skyline' view of Johannesburg."

Her very stylised images depict a girl swinging freely and filled with delight from what seems to be the Telkom Tower in Hillbrow and another high rise building. A crescent moon watches over her protectively.

Her second image is of a man pulling the city on wheels, as if to mean Rea Vaya will transport Joburg to its destination. Moys has used mainly black and white, with splashes of red or yellow highlighting aspects of her pictures.

Also using children, but in brighter colours of red, blue and white, Shoai's works depict a girl riding on a tricycle. A handful of people look on as if wanting to take a ride.

‘...an everyday object that allows whoever rides it to go places,’ says Dingaan Shoai

It is also doing its bit to get spectators to the games at Soccer City and Ellis Park during the 2010 World Cup. On match days some 1 500 passengers take the Rea Vaya buses from Westgate Station to Ellis Park and 4 000 travel to Soccer City.

On match days, with buses doing duty ferrying fans to the stadiums, normal bus services are interrupted and commuters must use other forms of transport. But with only a few games left to be played in Joburg, services will return to normal by 12 July.

There is also parking, and people can drive to the station to catch a Rea Vaya bus to the games, or simply hop on a trunk route bus to the station – for only R12 return. Metrobus buses take passengers from across the city to the transport hub, and they can get on the BRT from there, for just R50 return.

Rea Vaya is an integral part of the public transport fabric

• Soccer City transport
• A warm Rea Vaya welcome for fans
• World Cup transport
• Westgate Station