MyCiTi airport service is so badly advertised it’ll quietly expire

I ARRIVED at Cape Town International Airport recently after a trip overseas. Between the arrivals hall and the rest of the airport, I was badgered at least 10 times by men offering me a taxi ride to Cape Town.

I intended to take a MyCiTi bus to town, costing R68, plus a connection from the Civic Centre to the stop a few hundred metres from my home (total cost about R73) instead of a taxi which would cost about R300.

Apart from the saving, the bus from the airport would cruise past the traffic in a dedicated lane. And it would be safer, and less liable to be stoned.

But there were no indications of where I could find the MyCiTi bus service.

There were no pamphlets in the pocket of the aircraft telling me about MyCiTi. No signage at the airport. There were no touts urging me to take the bus. No one in the uniform of MyCiTi, urging travellers to use the service. No kiosks in MyCiTi colours.

I know where the MyCiTi bus station is, but I asked one of the taxi drivers where the bus left from. He pointed to a row of taxis, parked outside near the bus station.

“That is the public transport, those vehicles there’’ he told me.

Another taxi driver just shrugged when I asked again.

I swiped my MyCiTi card at the bus terminus turnstile, and I was helped to do this by a woman standing by in MyCiTi uniform, the first and only MyCiTi employee I had met since arriving back home.

I wheeled my luggage into the building, and sat down.

Ten minutes later the same woman who had helped me clock in was yelling at me: “Here, the bus is not leaving from here!”

I then saw the bus, which was too small to use the docking platform, waiting behind the terminus building. By the time I had scurried around the building in the rain, the bus engine was running and I nearly missed it altogether.

Why had the MyCiTi woman let me in, if she knew the bus would not leave from the terminus, but from behind the building?

At Los Angeles International airport there are constant warnings to ignore taxi touts, and only to use approved public transport.

This is standard practice at many international airports, in the interests of safety and efficiency, and reducing the traffic load.

I have an Oyster card for London, a Gautrain card for Joburg, and a MyCiTi card for Cape Town, all of which last for years.

Every tourist and local should be induced to use the MyCiTi service while in Cape Town, but there is no marketing, while the taxis have the freedom to sell their services at will.

If this continues, MyCiTi will disappear. William Barker

Oranjezicht