Rea VaYA Rebels

Dear Blog.....

I wanted to write an article about my experience with the Rea Vaya today but I couldn’t find the right words to say, so I decided to just tell you what happened without involving a lot of politics. So this is an informal post which is based on what I heard, my opinion and what I feel about todays incident.

I catch a bus at Civic Centre in Braamfontein to Thokoza Park where I’ll be connected to a bus to my neighbourhood. Everything was going well and today I was on bus number 7044

   BUS WITH THE BUSTED WHEEL                                                                 

but just as we pass Moroka Police station; a few streets down we hear a weird and loud sound that scares some passengers and as we look around we notice that one of the wheels on the bus busted and was wrenched off the rim. That freaked me out but I soon calmed down as the driver took control of the situation.

BUS DRIVER COLLECTING WHAT REMAINED OF THE WHEEL

In the end we all went into the bus that was behind us, even though it beyond ‘overload’ we all understood that it was necessary and so we got home safely.

That is but only one misfortune that turned out good in the end, what if this happens again but this time people get hurt; it is good that the bus does not open it doors whilst it is moving bt from time to time you find the bus doors opening and closing without control sometimes it won’t even open at all. The buses are often late especially Braamfontein T2 in the morning at the Thokoza Park station, people will be forced to ride the T3 which takes too long to get to Braamfontein where we have to take another bus ‘C3’ in order to get to our respective destinations.

This is not the only thing that angers the people; the fact that the bus fare has increased ever since the smartcard has been introduced doesn’t sit well with commuters. The scanning machines sometimes do not work and people end up paying penalty fees due to malfunctioning scanning machines which is totally not their fault. Checking the balance on the smartcard has proved to be a nightmare, people who stay in townships such as Naledi, Tladi, Dhlamini, Protea Glen etc cant load money onto the card or even check their balance all because they do not have Rea Vaya stations around them the nearest being Thokoza Park where you will pay a taxi fare of R7.50 just to get there.

In town when you try to load the smartcard it’s either the agent doesn’t know exactly what they are doing or the lines are really long and the buses keep leaving you behind.

We have all grown to love and adore the BRT but something needs to be done about these small problems because that’s how it all starts and before you know it; Rea Vaya will be like the shosholoza Meyl train; unsafe, dirty and  overcrowded.