The Gautrain is a really awesome way to get to the airport. And parking at Sandton and then taking the train takes away the lottery of the roads, especially in the current mix of rain and construction.
But the parking rates are way too high; and in some respects just doesn't make sense. For the airport, the first 24 hours costs R29, the second 24 hours cost an additional R29.50 and then for the third day onwards costs R97.50 a day. While the parking charge is less than the parkade costs at OR Tambo (R130 a day), it becomes much higher when the train ticket is taken into account. Only for the 2 day trip, is the Gautrain a cheaper option than driving to OR Tambo and parking at the parkade.
With the bus routes being rather limited (which I suspect is one of the reasons they are often empty) - the prospect of just jumping on to the Gautrain system is still a long way off. And until then, the economics of using the train if you don't live in and around Sandton, for anyhting more than a 2 day trip is going to be hard to justify.
2 comments:
yoh, dude - the charges you're talking about are ONLY for sandton. parking at midrand and rhodesfield is so cheap that people from the east now use the gautrain to come to work every day. as for the bus routes - they are damn useful for people who are out and about in jhb during the week - you can get to fourways, rosebank and wendywood without a car.
The sheer amount of money they are making alone shows just how successful and feasible a solution it really is - they exceeded their predicted traffic within the first month of operation. The train from sandton to the airport is ALWAYS packed. there must be something that you are missing.
furthermore, the whole point of the busroutes is to make people park further away from the gautrain stations, hence they generally lead to places where there is vastly cheaper, secure parking.
I really think you've completely misjudged the situation.
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