Africa's first high-speed train to open ahead of World Cup

The Gautrain, Africa's first high-speed rail line, will launch on June 8 in South Africa three days before the opening match of the 2010 football World Cup, the developers said Friday.

The Gautrain at OR Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg, South Africa

French construction giant Bouygues said the train's first segment, linking OR Tambo International Airport and the posh Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, will open in time for the June 11 kick-off of Africa's first World Cup.

The segment "will be handed over on June 8, three weeks ahead of our original schedule," said Christian Gazaignes, Bouygues' executive director.

For R100 (13 dollars, 10 euros), World Cup visitors will be able to ride the 15 kilometres from the airport to the Sandton hotel district in less than 15 minutes.

In rush-hour traffic, the same trip takes more than an hour by car.

When finished in mid-2011, the 80-kilometre regional express train will link the capital Pretoria with national economic hub Johannesburg, running at speeds of up to 160 kilometres (99 miles) an hour and enabling commuters to make the trip in 42 minutes.

"It's going to give the country a beautiful image of modernity," said Laurence Leblanc, international director of RATP Dev, a subsidiary of French group RATP, the company awarded a 15-year concession to operate the train.

"The Gautrain isn't specifically a World Cup project. It doesn't serve the stadiums," said Leblanc. "But it's a superb project for South Africa's image. That's why we're knocking ourselves out to get ready."

The Bombela Consortium, an international group that includes Bouygues, Canadian firm Bombardier and two South African companies, began construction on the project in 2006.

The developers say they have "worked like crazy" to finish the first section before the World Cup, making up time lost to strikes and construction delays.

The 3.2-million-dollar Gautrain is the first high-speed rail line in Africa. The north African cities of Casablanca, Algiers and Cairo all have metro lines, but none runs as fast or as far as the Gautrain.

South African transportation officials say the train will form the backbone of a new public transport network that will help take traffic off the notoriously congested roads of the greater metropolitan area.

"We're targeting people who have the means to own a small car but would prefer to avoid traffic jams," said Leblanc.

RATP says it is targeting South Africans with a monthly income of 1,030 to 2,580 dollars (about R7000 to R20 000), and predicts 16,000 passengers a day will use the new rail line.

To get them to the train, the company plans to roll out a network of shuttle buses serving the population centres around the train stations.

RATP has set the price for the airport-Sandton route relatively high at 13 dollars (R100). But the Sandton-Pretoria segment will cost just 4.5 dollars (about R30), rivalling the price of the mini-buses that currently provide most of area's mass transit.

Officials hope the price scheme will help turn South Africans onto public transport, in a country where mass transit systems languished for decades under apartheid policies designed to keep whites and blacks apart.

RATP also promises tight security on the trains, using closed-circuit TV cameras, 400 security guards and 50 police officers to convince South Africans to abandon the protective shell of their vehicles.

Sapa-AFP