South Africa plans high-speed train for 2009

JOHANNESBURG – A high-speed train linking South Africa’s capital Pretoria to its biggest city, Johannesburg, will be running by 2009, the provincial premier said yesterday.

The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link will create 100 000 jobs and provide alternative transport from the Johannesburg International Airport to the centre of the city and on to Pretoria to the north. “By 2009 the train will be carrying passengers,” said Mbhazima Shilowa, the premier of the province of Gauteng, the Sapa news agency reported.The Gautrain will cover a distance of 80 kilometres of which 15 will be underground tunnels at a speed of 160 kilometres per hour.The trip from Johannesburg to Pretoria should take 35 minutes.The winner of a tender for the rail link will be announced in November and financial negotiations for the mega-project should be concluded by April 2005, said Shilowa.Construction is slated to begin soon after that, and the train is expected to start rolling in 2009, a year before South Africa is to play host to millions of visitors for the World Cup.The Gautrain is expected to give public transport in the Johannesburg-Pretoria axis a much needed reprieve from mounting road traffic, which has increased by 25 percent between 1996 and 2000.- Nampa-AFP”By 2009 the train will be carrying passengers,” said Mbhazima Shilowa, the premier of the province of Gauteng, the Sapa news agency reported.The Gautrain will cover a distance of 80 kilometres of which 15 will be underground tunnels at a speed of 160 kilometres per hour.The trip from Johannesburg to Pretoria should take 35 minutes.The winner of a tender for the rail link will be announced in November and financial negotiations for the mega-project should be concluded by April 2005, said Shilowa.Construction is slated to begin soon after that, and the train is expected to start rolling in 2009, a year before South Africa is to play host to millions of visitors for the World Cup.The Gautrain is expected to give public transport in the Johannesburg-Pretoria axis a much needed reprieve from mounting road traffic, which has increased by 25 percent between 1996 and 2000.- Nampa-AFP