SOUTH AFRICA Cape Town has awarded the tender to provide vehicles for its extended MyCiTi bus routes to Volvo SA. The contract, worth R180m, is for 40 buses to run on the N2 Express routes. Volvo SA will also provide ancillary services such as training and maintenance.
N2 Express routes were expected to commence at the end of the year, linking Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain with the city centre.
A further tender for 66 buses is being evaluated for other routes scheduled for launch this year and in 2014, with destinations including the Atlantic Seaboard, Melkbosstrand, Atlantis, Dunoon and Century City. Results may be announced during June.
Cape Town’s roll-out of MyCiti bus routes has been challenged in court by Golden Arrow Bus Services (GABS). An application by GABS to have the MyCiti service expansion halted was turned down by the Western Cape High Court. GABS wanted the city to enter into a mediation and arbitration process to resolve disputes over certain routes.
It also wanted to prevent the city negotiating and concluding a 12- year contract to operate the MyCiti services.
The High Court ruled compelling the authority to go through such a process would make it impossible to fulfil its mandate to integrate services into an overall public transport system.
According to the National Land Transport Act, the city was obliged to negotiate, but not to agree to something. The application was dismissed with costs.
Golden Arrow Bus Services says it has now turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal to challenge decision made by the High Court. “After careful deliberation of the judgment, GABS has been advised reasonable grounds exist for another court reaching a different conclusion on critical issues,” General Manager Francois Meyer said in a statement. He said GABS had submitted an application for leave to appeal against the judgment. “GABS is concerned about the precedent which will be set in the future rollout of the MyCiti services if the judgment handed down is upheld,” said Meyer.
