Engaging the paratransit sector in Cape Town on public transport reform: Progress, process and risks

摘要

The South African government in 2006 initiated an urban public transport reform programme reliant on the introduction of new bus rapid transit (BRT) systems. Affected paratransit operators can opt to be incorporated in these systems by forming new operating companies, but must withdraw their existing services from proposed routes. Cape Town's first phase of BRT operations came online in 2011, and operator engagement has focussed on this phase. The attitudes within this city's paratransit sector in relation to future phases, and to the broader reform policy, remain largely untested. In view of this sector's past resistance to government-led proposals, and the current phase avoiding areas with the highest concentrations of operators, the current engagement process's outcomes may not be adequate indicators of future prospects. In this paper the authors discuss the details of the offer that has been made to paratransit operators, progress towards finalising negotiations around that offer, risk factors inherent in the current approach to engagement, and issues that have emerged around the reform programme - insofar as it affects and involves paratransit - which may impact upon future phases of the reform programme. These emerging issues include: the feasibility of continued financial compensation for withdrawing existing operating permissions in view of broader fiscal concerns around BRT implementation; a lack of insight into the fundamental factors driving the responses of paratransit operators and associations to the reform programme; and concerns around a national public transport reform policy that may not be sufficiently grounded in the local contexts within which municipalities and operators function.