Gautrain Management Agency’s shift in focus leads to overhaul in extension plan

By Tasneem Bulbulia

The Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) is pursuing a new strategy to play a broader role in the country’s transport ecosystem and align to the province’s 25-year Integrated Transport Master Plan (ITMP) 2025, which envisions a passenger rail network as the backbone of Gauteng’s modernised and integrated transport system.

The GMA was established to manage, coordinate and oversee concession agreements for the Gautrain, and to assist the province and other State entities in realising their integrated public transport and rail-related objectives.

A new approach from the GMA was required to enable this assistance to be properly provided, and to ensure alignment with the ITMP, to which it made notable contributions, CEO Tshepo Kgobe tells Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

The first Gautrain ride left Sandton station for OR Tambo Station 15 years ago, on June 8, 2010. A simulation that guided the formulation of the ITMP has shown that, as predicted in 2017, highway speeds in the province have decreased to about