During his latest State of the Province Address (SoPA), Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi revealed that the expansion to the Gautrain is expected to create in excess of 10.1 million jobs in construction over a five-year period.
In 2022, the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) announced that the passenger rail service would be nearly tripled in size in the coming years, from the current 80km to an impressive 230km, connecting previously underserved communities to the country’s main economic hubs.
The upgraded Gautrain will also form an integral part of the new high-speed railway planned between Gauteng and Limpopo.
The project is expected to kick off in 2026 when the Gauteng Provincial Government is set to assume ownership of the commuter rail system after the current concession expires.
“To uphold the position of Gauteng as the economic hub, we will accelerate our infrastructure investment. In less than two years, the Gauteng Government will invest R120 billion in the expansion of Gautrain to the following areas: Soweto via Fourways; Mamelodi; Atteridgeville; Lanseria; and Springs,” said Lesufi at the SoPA.
“This expansion is expected to create over 10,125,000 jobs during construction over a five-year period.”
The bid to construct these lines is closing at the end of October 2024, after which the successful applicants will be put through a stringent review process to determine who is the most capable of doing the job.
2026 Gautrain Expansion map
Gauteng’s moneymaker
A study on the socioeconomic impact of the Gautrain conducted by consulting engineering firm Hatch, released in 2019, showed that the rapid-rail system contributes R6.64 billion to the Gauteng GDP – or 0.56% – during a typical year of operation.
It added that for every rand spent on Gautrain’s original construction, around R2.60 of economic benefit has been delivered to Gauteng over a ten-year period.
The report indicated that an expanded Gautrain system should add roughly R5 billion to Gauteng’s GDP during a typical year of construction, and R12.44 billion to the GDP during a typical year of operations.
The Gautrain is also considering other means of revenue generation through leveraging its existing assets, such as developing the land which it already owns for use by other businesses and expanding its driver’s licence services.
Part of these proceeds are earmarked for paying off the substantial R13-billion debt the Gauteng province accrued from the failed e-toll project, while the rest will be funneled to service delivery and infrastructure upgrades.
Discussing the improvement of the province’s logistics infrastructure, Premier Lesufi said there are two main projects in the pipeline.
The first of these is the Ukuvuselela Project, a high-capacity freight rail between Tshwane, Gauteng, and Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.
“Its goal is to modernise an existing railway line and turn it into a high-volume, sustainably operated freight rail logistics system that serves the South African automotive industry,” said Lesufi.
Through this initiative, the Premier said the “economy will solidify and maintain its leading position in the manufacturing and automobile industries.”
“It is envisaged that Project Ukuvuselela will result in nearly 4,000 construction jobs and just over 1,000 permanent operations jobs,” he said.
The second major project is the upcoming Limpopo-Gauteng high-speed train.
The project has “now entered the feasibility study phase and will accelerate our desire to work with our counterparts in Limpopo,” said Lesufi.
The railway is expected to create over 18,000 jobs during the construction period.
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