MyCiti bus route from Khayelitsha to the city centre. Photo by Pharie Sefali.
15 July 2014
After the launch of the MyCiti bus route from Khayelitsha to the city centre last Saturday, GroundUp journalist Pharie Sefali took the bus in during morning and afternoon rush hours.
I took the MyCiti bus last Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon. Although the bus can take 89 passengers —seated and standing— there were only about eight people in the morning ride and about 15 in the afternoon one. At about 40 to 45 minutes, it was much quicker than the bus, because there are fewer stops.
MyCiti compete with three other forms of public transport. Khayelitsha residents is serviced by Golden Arrow busses, Metrorail trains and minibus taxis. However, the trains are overcrowded at rush hour and often late. Busses too are often late. Minibus taxis have a reputation for being unsafe and taxi wars sometimes mean they are unavailable.
The cost of a single MyCiTi trip from Kuyasa in Khayelitsha to the city centre is R16.50. By comparison, a minibus taxi trip costs R21.50, a Golden Arrow bus costs R11.50 during off-peak hours and up to R26 during peak hours. The train costs R9.
Sinazo Kaliba from Khayelitsha says that the My Citi bus is convenient for her since she works in Gardens, Cape Town. “It takes me less than 40 minutes to get to work from Khayelitsha. And the bus service is good and comfortable”, she says.
Anelisa Nkonzo says that the MyCiti bus is comfortable and more glamorous than the Golden Arrow one. But she is worried that it has fewer seats.
“To be honest I do not see the point of MyCiTi in Khayelitsha. Golden Arrow could have put more buses in the area and the City could have used the money for MyCiTi to subsidize the Taxi industry or build more roads,”, she says.
Currently the MyCiTi bus stops are still under construction and, as far as I could see, there was no security at the stops. The first bus leaves Kuyasa at 5:30am and the last one leaves the city centre at 10:25pm.