With the first phase of the City’s Integrated Rapid Transport (IRT) system set to get underway in March 2010, the project is now rapidly gaining pace.

The trunk station designs have been finalised, and construction is already underway in the Culemborg area. Five construction contracts have been awarded, including Culemborg, Paarden Island, and parts of Marine Drive (R27).

The stations – glass structures – will all have ticket facilities, security and CCTV cameras, variable message signage and recycling bins capable of handling pre-sorted litter of up to six different kinds.

Design features include angled poles that protrude beyond horizontal roofs and large 'totem poles' to identify the stations. Cost and aesthetics were both important considerations in the design process.

The trunk stations are designed to sit in the middle of the road, but will need to deal with a variety of different space constraints, producing more than 13 design variations.

Some are particularly long and narrow, for example, in Paarden Island, while on Blaauwberg Road there will be H-shaped stations and the main station at Greenpoint Stadium will be V-shaped and capable of handling about 20 000 people per hour.

There will also be a station designed with cut outs to accommodate existing trees outside the old Imperial cold storage building close to Buitenkant St.

The R1,3 billion Phase 1A will eventually cover the entire city and will only be completed in 2018. For now, the Phase 1A will feature an extensive inner-city network with trunk services to the airport, Atlantis, the Bayside area, Du Noon and Century City. (click here to view the map of Phase 1, PDF 1.1mb)

The next priority is the procurement of the vehicles. The city is currently finalising a cost-estimate, and is preparing four separate tenders to be sent out no later than February 2009.

In the meantime, the City is continuing to engage with current bus and minibus taxi operators, who are key stakeholders and operators of the new system.