Hopping off

Regulars

Hopping Off

Our regular columns and sections are all contributions from leading industry figures.

April 11, 2019

Turkeys voting for Christmas?

Many South Africans have said that they won’t be bothering to vote in the upcoming elections. When it comes to public transport, they have...

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March 14, 2019

Houston, we have a problem

…and so, too, does South Africa Who would have thought that this well-known quote is now almost 49 years old? Back in April 1970,...

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February 14, 2019

Beware the hornet’s sting!Β 

Only a few days into the New Year, and here I am looking at bodies being carried away from the latest rail accident in...

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December 12, 2018

Metrorail meltdown

Prasa’s woes mean the new Minister of Transport, Blade Nzimande, has to focus on constitutionality The timing was exquisite. Slap in the middle of...

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November 14, 2018

Here’s your chance, Gautrain!

Here’s an idea for a prospective doctoral thesis The latest twist in the saga at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is...

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October 15, 2018

It’s tough going it alone

Is the concept of owner-driver inherently false? Let’s look at two articles that appeared on consecutive days (August 21/22) in Business Day. One was...

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September 12, 2018

The parable of the China dolls

Here’s a parable that helps to explain how transport in all its forms is actually letting down the South African economy In addition to...

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August 15, 2018

Of batteries, buses and boardroom buddies

Have electric buses gone backwards? A recent controversy involving a potential MyCiTi supplier might suggest so In January the City of Cape Town suspended...

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July 9, 2018

Let’s save five billion litres!

How much higher will the fuel price have to go before someone starts saying enough is enough? R20 a litre? R30? Β  The days...

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June 18, 2018

Bye-bye, bus industry!Β 

All that a strike in the bus industry will achieve is to sustain its slow implosion. Last month’s column welcomed the fact that civil...

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May 9, 2018

Advice for Solidarity

Just about every subsidised public transport organisation in South Africa could be regarded as insolvent. If government and municipal subsidies were turned off, and...

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April 10, 2018

Now Is Your Chance, Comrade Blade!

I’d speculate that at no time since 1910 has the post of minister of transport been filled by anyone seriously committed to making transport...

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