What to expect from the Gautrain service
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
I needed to go to Sandton today (Saturday) to drop something off with a friend who lives directly across the road from Sandton City. I decided, having heard so many positive reviews of the gautrain, that I would take the train to see for myself.
I arrived at the Rhodesfield station in Kempton Park at about 08H00. The first thing which struck me was how helpful everybody was, from the moment I arrived at the boom gate to enter the parking lot. I asked the guard about the payment method etc, and he was friendly and helpful.
Once I got into the building I was greeted by more friendly staff who help you with the purchase process. I have no doubt they are not permanent fixtures, being there only to aid and assist in the initial periods. But they were so friendly and very helpful.
I got my card and went to wait on the platform for the train. Either through sheer luck, or efficiency of the service, the train arrived within about 2 minutes of me having arrived on the platform (the same was true on my return journey).
The stations as a whole are very clean and neat. The trains even more so. Carpeted isles and padded seats. The only problem is that it does not have overhead hand rails if you want to stand. I guess they don’t want people to stand, but if you’ve been on other undergrounds during peak times you’ll know that that’s not really practical.
The view is certainly different. Its not exactly a beautiful view, we’re still just in Johannesburg, but its a view that you wouldn’t normally get to see, particularly at the Marlboro Station, being raised as high as it is.
Having arrived at Sandton a few minutes later I got off the train and headed to the exit. I try to stay fit, so I try to avoid escalators and lifts. I didn’t however realise just how deep the station was. Its not that deep that I’d discourage you from taking the stairs, its just that you shouldn’t start at the bottom of the stairwell in a sprint like I did. By the time I got the the last level I was just about dragging myself up by the hand rail.
From the station its a 5 minute walk into Sandton City.
On the trip back, the driver announced that we were traveling at a speed of 160Kms/hours (100 Miles / hour if my conversion is anything to go by). It honestly felt more like 80kms / hour. The ride is just that smooth. When I arrived back at Rhodesfield just after 10H00, the queue for tickets was really long, going right out of the door. Good thing I’m an early riser!
The trip was really amazing. I’ll certainly be using the service more, particularly when the Pretoria lines open. Also, with SANRAL now tolling just about every piece of highway the can lay claim to, I’m sure it will be far more economical than road travel. Of course, the 5 or 10 minute walks to and from stations will do your health the world of good too.
Gautrain Improvements I’d Like to See
In spite of it being an already great service, I think there are one or two small thing they can do to drastically improve the service.
1) Allow users to register online. If we could register online, and enter the gautrain card number on our profile, we could view our account balances, add funds online etc. This would be a great feature. When I got back to Rhodesfield at about 10H00, they queues for people loading funds were out the door. If I could add funds myself online, I could avoid the queues and walk straight to the platform
2) Better signage. The signs at Gautrain are a little lacking. Its not obvious when you get onto the platform where you need to stand for which line. Its also not very clear which cars you need to get into (some cars are reserved for airport use). There are loads of gautrain employees to assist at the moment, but in peak times they can’t help everyone.
3)The Sandton station should have clear signs to get to Sandton City. It would in fact be much better if they could add an entrance directly opposite to the current one as I suspect (without having done any investigation), that that would put you onto the road running directly past Sandton City.
4) Better travel plans. Their weekly pass is not really cheaper than their daily rate. The reason I say that is because their weekly pass gives you 14 trips. I know that that is 7 days return, which is a weekly pass, but they should consider having a weekday weekly pass. Its quite conceivable that people would want to travel to work, Monday to Friday, but not over the weekends.
Quotes Overheard on the Train
I overheard one or two comments on the train (not that I was trying to listen in…. ok, maybe a little).
- One person was taking his family (mother, father, uncles, whatever) to Sandton. He works in Sandton and now uses the train to work. He was so proud of the service that he was bragging about it like it was all his idea. At one point he said, “dit maak my so trots op Suid Afrika” (“It makes me so proud of South Africa”). Ditto!
- Another lady was there with her husband and the two cutest little girls. The one girl was so excited when we went “under the tunnel”, and even when we were “over the tunnel” (the ramp up to the Marlboro Station). At the Marlboro Station, there was a train next to us on the other line. This lady looked at some of the people in the next train and said, “Oh, look, they’ve already got the London Underground look on their faces!”. I guess the novelty has worn off for some, or, perhaps they just express their excitement in a different way. (PS, her husband had a decent looking camera and had taken a fair number of pics. I asked him to mail me some which he said he would do, so I’ll post them here once I get them).
Advice for First Timers
The best advice I guess is just go and see it for yourselves. As I mentioned, at about 10H00, the ticket queues are long, so get there early, before 08H30 if you can. Even if you don’t use the service then, just load money onto your card so when you do use it, you just walk in.
Listen to the comments on the train. I know, I know, its kind of rude to listen to people’s conversations, but this is not exactly a private environment, and I think the positive vibe is well worth getting involved in!
If you have any pics, stories or comments / improvement suggestions, please feel free to post here.
See you on the train!
 Gautrain Arrival |
 Rhodesfield Gautrain Station |
 Gautrain Rhodesfield Station Platform |
 Kempton Power Station |
 Rhodesfield Station |
