The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls for the contract of the Gautrain operator to be made public so that we know the real annual subsidy costs. It appears from documents tabled at a recent meeting of the Gauteng Legislature's Roads and Transport Committee that this subsidy will be more than R700 million a year (see report in The Star).

The DA has for a while been concerned about the steadily growing costs of the Gautrain, which presently stands at over R27 billion. R383 million is budgeted for "operational and support costs" for the Gautrain Management Agency, and about R360 million for a "patronage guarantee". Paying this out every year will squeeze out other public transport projects, as it will consume about one third of the Gauteng Roads and Transport budget.

This shows extremely poor planning and a skewed sense of priorities as the Metrorail in Gauteng desperately needs to be upgraded to carry far more passengers than those catered for by Gautrain. Meanwhile, motorists face extremely high toll fees to pay for the upgraded freeways.

Too much has been done in secret, and we are paying a very high price because of poor planning. We need full information in order to assess the real options to save transport in Gautrain.

Statement issued by Dr. Neil Campbell, DA MPL, June 21 2011

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