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News Archive June 2011 Rea Vaya impresses Chinese group
| Rea Vaya impresses Chinese group |
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| Friday, 24 June 2011 |
A municipal team from Jinan were in town, and spent some time touring Rea Vaya. The visitors gave the system a nod of approval.
Construction work on New Canada Road REA Vaya continues to bag nods of approval and compliments from other cities that also have Bus Rapid Transit systems. Most recently, Joburg's flagship public transport facility was visited by a municipal delegate from the city of Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, in Eastern China.
Jinan itself has a fairly young BRT, with 34 kilometres of dedicated bus way and 46 stations. It first opened shop in April 2008, just over a year before Rea Vaya, which is now almost two years old.
Rea Vaya has been running successfully since 30 August 2009. Its first phase, Phase 1A, made up of trunk, complementary and feeder routes, transports tens of thousands of people a day.
The trunk route starts in Thokoza Park; its feeder buses travel to Dobsonville, passing through Orlando and Meadowlands. It also goes to Eldorado Park, driving through Kliptown. Other feeder routes in Soweto are to Naledi and Protea Glen.
From Thokoza Park and Dobsonville in Soweto, the trunk route goes to Ellis Park in Doornfontein. Buses run at regular intervals using dedicated bus lanes; this helps to combat traffic congestion and improve the quality of public transport.
While in the city, the visiting Chinese officials toured Ellis Park East Station and the inner city busways while en route to OR Tambo International Airport. They were here on 26 May.
According to Colleen McCaul from the Rea Vaya project management unit, who briefed the delegation, the group was interested in topics such as the drivers' salaries and costs of purchasing the buses.
The delegation consisted of the city's vice-mayor, Liang Wang; the vice-secretary general of the municipal government, Jiquian Li; the director of the public utilities bureau, Yuliang Jia; the director of the urban planning bureau, Xinwen Wang; the chief of the City's municipal office, Kai Yu; and the vice-chief of the administrative office of Jinan's public facilities bureau, Weifeng Gong.
Jinan is known as the city of springs because of its large number of springs. It has a population presently of some 6 million people. At the end of 2001, it had a population density of 696 persons per square kilometre.
It is a traditional city that has undergone much transformation and modernisation. News, publicity, publishing, broadcasting, television and mass cultural activities abound. By the end of 2001, Jinan had 15 art troupes, 163 art or culture centres, eight museums, 14 archives and eight public libraries.
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