All Aboard The Gautrain
Last week sometime, I got a notice from Poken Africa on their Facebook page saying something along the lines of ‘sign up to come and view the Gautrain’. I have been interested for a long while in seeing what the technological marvel of the Gautrain was all about, so I notified the lass and we signed up.
We arrived at the Bombardier depot off Allandale road just after 10am, and were led into the main depot by the friendly staff from the project. Coffee and snacks were served, and much mingling (and pokening) was done by all! After a while, we were addressed by the CEO of the Gautrain Management Agency, Jack van der Merwe and Bombela marketing manager, Errol Braithwaite, who took everyone’s questions regarding the train, safety, technology and various other aspects of it. After Errol’s speech, he introduced Sandy, who ‘owned and washed’ the Gautrains. We were then told (to our wide eyes) that if we scream “Ag please Sandy” really loud, we’d get to actually go on the train. Well, 200 people clearly made enough noise, and we were allowed our ride!
We started from the Allandale depot, heading out towards what we thought was the test track. What we didn’t realise, was that we were actually being taken to the Marlboro station. There was absolute shock when we realised that in what seemed like 3 odd minutes, we’d made it from Allandale to Marlboro, a trip that during peak hour would easily take 45 minutes. To be certain, we timed it on the way back, and sure enough from Marlboro to Allandale depot took 2:52.
The train itself is very neatly done up, with all upholstery in the train matching and branded to the Gautrain. The airconditioning keeps you nice and cool, and the air suspension and lack of bolted rails makes for a smooth glide along the tracks. Reaching 160km/h was also astonishingly fast, and felt like we were going only around 60km/h. The Gautrain uses 25,000 volts on running and accelerating, and so in the interest of the environment (and as someone put it, the “bunnyhuggers”), the trains are all equipped with a regenerative braking system which feeds power back into the circuit when the brakes are applied on the trains.
All in all this was an awesome experience, be sure to check out the Gautrain Facebook page and the Tweet Up On Rails topic for more feedback, pictures and information!
What an awesome day it was. Epic! Thank you for a great blog and stunning pics. Was great to meet you at the #tweetuponrails today.
Thank you! It was a day to remember!
Hey There, the regenerative braking is not just for the bunny huggers, it is because the pendolinos are so heavy on the juice this helps keeps the cost of running the buggers down by at least 25-35% of what it would be without and keep maintenance costs lower on brake pads etc.
Now you felt that train at 160 – image a train that was even smother, had not tracks and cost 50% less to run and maintain. No rails to replace every 15 years like this one requires….
You could live in Durban and be in Jo’burg within an hour. For that matter you could live in Pretoria and be in durban in 1:15… or even not that you would want to, live in Bloem where houses are cheap, and work in Jo’burg and leave work at 5pm and be home by 6:35pm.
To really push it if the Mag-lev train was linked city to city – you can have it all, live in Cape Town and work in Joburg! 2:15 city to city……. by train.
The best part? The govt is going to build a high speed train link between Durban and Joburg… now if only it was the maglev underground….