Transport master plan moves forward

THE DEPARTMENT of Transport has embarked on Phase 3 of its National Transport Master Plan involving the application of its demand model to predict future requirements for freight and passenger services. This information will be compared with the capacity of the road and rail networks, airports and ports to identify where capacity will need to be enhanced, transport minister Jeff Radebe told a transport conference in Pretoria last week. The Master Plan is a blueprint for infrastructure investment for South Africa over the coming 45 years. The final phase will involve the development of an action agenda that will include recommendations on the institutional and policy changes necessary to achieve the implementation of the Master Plan Action Agenda. The final phase will also include cost estimates. “We are of the firm view that, once complete, the Master Plan will set South Africa’s transport on a new path into the future,” said Radebe. The first phase involved data collection which was completed in August 2007 while the second phase, the analysis, was completed in April 2008.