Sky train proposed for Cape Town

Gareth Ramsay, a development engineer at S-Plane Automation, has put forth the idea of turning Cape Town’s unfinished bridge into an elevated train line running between Woodstock and Sea Point.

The famous incomplete Foreshore Freeway Bridge has marred the Cape Town skyline for almost half a century, hosting Hollywood blockbusters and high-fashion photoshoots alike owing to its scenic location and post-apocalyptic look.

Plans are underway to finish the structure so that it can help ease congestion in the famously gridlocked city.

Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, told TopAuto in November 2024 that the bridge forms part of ongoing studies into reshaping the city’s road network.

“The City is busy with a Foreshore Freeway Precinct scoping study,” he said.

“The intention is to develop an optimum transport and land use solution to facilitate long-term investment and economic growth, while maximising the precinct’s inherit public amenity and development potential.”

As of March 2025, however, nothing has yet been approved.

Speaking on Cape Town radio station CapeTalk, S-Plane Automation’s Ramsay suggested that one way in which the City could repurpose the Foreshore Freeway Bridge is to implement an elevated train line between Woodstock and Sea Point.

The new line would be integrated into the current rail system and carry the same blue Prasa trains but will be elevated above traffic on a bridge instead of running on the ground.

“The reasoning behind it is that, at the end of last year, the City voted to release a 4.5-hectare piece of land in Three Anchor Bay with the idea of it being used for mixed-use development, and in an interview with John Maytham and the Mayor [Geordin Hill-Lewis], the Mayor indicated that he expects to raise around R700 million to sell off this land along with additional rates and taxes that would be generated by developing this piece of land,” said Ramsay.

“The Mayor also stated that this would be a great capital injection for the City and could find future infrastructure projects such as the completion of the Foreshore freeway as a road, which the City is currently conducting a feasibility study into.”

Ramsay said the problem with this is that building more roads encourages more vehicle use which in the short and medium term might partially solve the City’s congestion woes, but is certain to add to them over the long term.

He additionally highlighted that there has been political pushback against the idea of a mixed-use Three Anchor Bay precinct, as some people are advocating for the site to be used solely for social housing.

The elevated railway would thus address three issues at once:

• Contribute to the reduction of congestion and traffic in the City.
• Achieve a capital injection to fund similar infrastructure projects and generate future revenue streams from rates and taxes.
• Increase affordable and efficient access to the City and Atlantic Seaboard, allowing citizens to get to opportunities and redress the injustices of the country’s past.

Ramsay explained that the sky rail would start at Woodstock as this is where all metro train lines in the City converge.

From here, it will branch off and follow the Foreshore freeway, rising up between the two asphalt freeways that currently exist and making use of the available infrastructure of the unfinished bridge.

The path will continue to a station at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and another at the Cape Town stadium to accommodate for expos and events, and finish at the Three Anchor Bay site.

Once developed, the train could take as many as 15,000 people into and out of the City every hour, said Ramsay.

The metro could even go so far as to build light rail lines that branch off from the main railway to take passengers into the City at street level.

Light rail lines such as trams are perfect for ferrying small groups of travellers to locations that are less than a kilometre from one another.

Ramsay said the entire proposal will only become viable once the City actually releases the Three Anchor Bay land, located adjacent to the V&A Waterfront, but contends that it should help the metro in solving among the biggest problems it faces.

Cape Town is getting creative

With the City of Cape Town bursting out of its seams, authorities have been forced to find innovative ways to address infrastructure issues, one of which has been expanding vertically instead of horizontally.

For one, it is building the country’s first elevated traffic circle, which it has labelled a “sky circle”, that will stand 6.2 metres off the ground.

In construction since July 2022, the Sky Circle is located at the intersection of Govan Mbeki Road (M9) and Jan Smuts Drive (M17) in the suburb of Lansdowne.

It forms part of the second phase of the MyCiTi bus network expansion, linking Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, and various other underserviced communities across the metro-south east.

It’s intended to ease congestion in the area and allow for the freer movement of MyCiTi buses during peak hours, enabling them to maintain a strict schedule.

“By separating the MyCiTi buses from general traffic, the City will ensure the service operates optimally between Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha and Wynberg and Claremont without being delayed by the traffic or congestion at the ground level of the intersection,” said the City.

“This design will benefit MyCiTi commuters as it will reduce the travelling time to their destinations.”

Private vehicles will benefit from the sky circle, too.

The often-congested intersection is earmarked to receive new traffic signals, improved signalisation and sequencing, as well as dedicated walking and cycling lanes.

Existing sewer, water, and stormwater infrastructure within the road reserve will also be relocated and upgraded, translating to better services in surrounding communities.

The Sky Circle is expected to be completed and carry its first vehicles in early 2026, the City said

Cape Town has also taken its infrastructure underground to protect it from vandals and thieves.

Using so-called “submersible chambers”, the metro has been able to hide the core components of traffic signals underground which has seen a marked reduction in instances of theft and vandalism at “nightmare” intersections, it said.

The concrete chambers feature an uninterrupted power supply meaning there are no exposed cables attracting thieves, with another benefit being that they are independent of Eskom and unaffected by load-shedding.

They are also completely tamper-proof and are fitted with vibration-sensitive alarms that detect when someone may be trying to dig around the site and pick at the concrete.