City of Cape Town halts MyCiTi N2 Express service, angering former mayoral committee member
3 June 2019
Former Cape Town mayoral committee member for transport Brett Herron has criticised the City of Cape Town after its MyCiti N2 express service ground to a halt this month.
Herron, now a Good party Member of the Provincial Legislature, on Sunday said he was "angry and disappointed" to learn about the move.
He said he had written to the DA provincial leader and current Transport and Public Works MEC Bongi Madikizela to urgently resolve the matter.
Herron said the City's new leadership had failed thousands of residents.
"Those include commuters from Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, businesses whose staff will now struggle to get to work on time, and countless others who will be stuck in the resultant traffic jams."
He said political leaders in the City had allowed the MyCiTi N2 Express to cease operating. The operating contract lapsed on May 31, 2019, and no extension agreement had been concluded, Herron said.
"The service thus ceased to run, as of Friday evening."
Herron said City leadership must had been aware of this impending crisis. He said they had chosen to only inform commuters late on Saturday morning, via a social media tweet, that the service had been indefinitely suspended.
"This disregard for commuters is shameful. Commuters would have already purchased their monthly tickets by this time."
He said "it took a lot of hard work" and difficult negotiations to build trust between the government and bus operators.
"It was not an easy task, but it was achieved through strong leadership from all the parties seeing the bigger picture and being willing to put in the hard graft to achieve it."
In the last quarter of 2018 [October to December] the service provided more than 660 000 passenger trips, Herron said.
"The service offers a critical transport option for those commuters to no longer use Cape Town's unreliable rail services, and reduces congestion on our roads – a single bus can replace 50 cars on the road."
The City said the service would be "unavailable until further notice".
"The City commits to informing commuters as soon as the N2 Express service starts operating again. Residents from Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha who travel on the N2 Express service are advised to load mover points instead of monthly tickets on their myconnect cards until further notice."
The City said that those who had already purchased a monthly ticket for June, would be advised on reimbursement options "as soon as possible".
"The City is doing everything it can to negotiate a new contract to ensure that the N2 Express service becomes operational again."
Commuters are advised to visit the MyCiTi website on www.myciti.org.za for regular updates about the service; and to follow on Twitter @MyCiTiBus; or to phone, the Transport Information Centre on 0800 65 64 63 – the TIC is available 24/7.
