Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.
The rollout of Integrated Rapid Public Transport Networks (IRPTNs) in 13 cities across South
Africa has been a significant step forward in the provision of safe, affordable and reliable public
transport services to the communities of our cities and towns. The incorporation of the existing
minibus taxi operators into these systems has fundamentally changed the role of local government
and the existing operators in the provision of public transport services and these changes have not
come without their risks.
This paper explores some of the risks experienced by the current approach to the design of our
IRPTNs and suggests an alternative approach to the transformation of public transport services in
South Africa. This alternative approach attempts to build on the capacity that already exists within
the public transport sector whilst still being able to deliver regular, reliable and affordable transport
services without some of the institutional and financial strains currently being experienced.
