Success and delay in IPTN projects : case study analysis of three South African cities

Abstract

Following the 2007 Public Transport Strategy the implementation of city-wide Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTN) improvements has proven difficult. Only five of the 13 cities that embarked upon this process have managed to install service operations. The aim of this paper is to identify the underlying factors that have caused both success and delay in IPTN projects in a selection of these cities (George, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane). While some successes have been achieved, implementation in the three IPTN projects described in the paper has stalled. At the end of 2017, all three IPTNs were experiencing lower than expected operational performance, higher than expected infrastructural cost, longer than expected implementation timelines and higher than expected industry transformation costs. Case study analysis indicates that these outcomes have been the product of a range of underlying factors, most dominant of which have been institutional in nature. In George, there was intergovernmental cooperation to ensure the necessary institutional capacity and funding, but a disjoint between national government objectives and the local context has hampered the project. The Tshwane planning department faced capacity and resourcing constraints, which contributed to A Re Yeng’s delay. While Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s efforts to negotiate with the minibus-taxi industry to implement the Libhongolethu ITPS was hamstrung by corruption allegations