In 2010, the City of Cape Town launched phase 1 of MyCiTi. This network covers much of the west coast up to Atlantis, as well as Century City, the City Bowl and the Atlantic Seaboard to Hout Bay. There is also an airport express, as well as express routes from the CBD via the N2 To Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain.
Currently, the latter is the only access Mitchells Plain residents have to the MyCiTi service, but major plans are afoot for connectivity in the area.
The City’s Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA) says phase 2A will be four times the size of phase 1 and will take about five years to roll out. It will comprise two trunk services, one to Mitchells Plain and one to Khayelitsha, and a network of 34 feeder routes. These routes will traverse a considerable proportion of the city, benefiting 1.4 million people. Like the west coast service, red lanes will be for the exclusive use of trunk buses.
To see where the planned rollout will occur, click here.
One of the trunk routes will transport commuters from Mitchells Plain to Claremont along a 25km stretch. Along with the Khayelitsha trunk route, it will bring access to MyCiTi to suburbs including Beacon Valley, Brown’s Farm, Claremont, Crawford, Crossroads, Eastridge, Enkanini, Gugulethu, Hanover Park, Harare, Ikwezi Park, Kenilworth, Kenwyn, Khayelitsha CBD, Kuyasa, Lansdowne, Lentegeur, Litha Park, Mandela Park, Manenberg, Mitchells Plain CBD, Nonqubela, Nyanga, Ottery, Ottery East, Philippi, Philippi East, Plumstead, Rondebosch East, Royal Cape, Sweet Homes, Tafelsig, Turf Hall Estate, Wetton and Wynberg, according to TDA.
According to the Cape Argus, there will be about 20 median stations in the footprint by 2022, and this could expand to 30 in another decade if there’s demand. Ultimately, the City intends to place a station or stop within 500 metres of the homes of 80% of commuters. The total estimated cost for all infrastructure for phase 2A, based on 2018 projections, is R4.7 billion. Compare that to R2.9 billion for phase 1A.
If you want a taste of what’s to come, we recommend taking the N2 Express to Open Streets Mitchells Plain on 2 April. You can find the route map over here. We are so glad this option is available for getting to the car-free day, as it gives attendees a choice to leave the car at home altogether. After all, an Open Streets Day starts the moment you leave your front door!
This content was made possible through the support of the WWF Nedbank Green Trust.
