Abstract
M.Com. (Business Management)
The purpose of the study is to examine the current state of public passenger transport in the area of Ekurhuleni and to make recommendations to improve the situation and in order to fulfil this, the assignment assesses current national, provincial and local government public transport plans.
The primary objectives of the study are to illustrate the current scenario of public passenger transport in the area of Ekurhuleni and to make recommendations for the improvement thereof. The secondary objectives are to undertake research in the area to help establish the general sentiment of the public transport users towards public passenger transport. Primary and secondary research methodologies were applied in the research process. The primary research methodology encompassed personal interviews conducted with members of the general public as well as public officials whilst secondary research methodology contributed in the form of published and unpublished data sourced from official reports, the internet and other sources.
The study is based on road and rail primary modes of public transport. From the rail mode perspective the study discusses the role that Metrorail and Gautrain fulfil within the research area and from the road transport mode perspective the study reviews the role that is being fulfilled by the taxi and bus operations in the area.
The survey investigation undertaken in the study is done for the purposes of gaining an indication of the modal split by usage as well as passenger sentiments on the levels of service the study modes are offering. It must be mentioned though that the researcher is aware of other similar surveys that have been conducted and the intention of conducting this survey is for validation purposes. The survey conducted was done so in areas where due to the proximity of services there was an equal opportunity for a random sample selecting a road and/or rail public transport user for interviews.
From the survey conducted as mentioned above the current situation is that there are noteworthy areas of improvement that need to be considered. These areas of improvements stem from both road and rail modes transport. In order to make sizeable improvements from the current state of affairs it is important according to world-renowned public transport expert Vukan R. Vuchic to “understand the inherent characteristics of different modes and that one must free oneself from those real-world...