Aquila Online

Aquila pronounced AK-weh-lah, uh-KWILL-uh or even a-kee-laa, means eagle in Latin. Just like the eagle, this blog is my “bird’s eye view” on situations or topics that I happen to come across in my life.

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What Would You Do With Gautrain’s R13bn?

// December 15th, 2005 // General // 1,470 views

Received this one via email today and thought I’d share the sentiment. I did check out the website to try and authenticate the source, but it appears as through it may have been posted in on of their newsletters.

Anyhow, it’s food for thought.

What would you do with Gautrain’s R13bn?

To put the cost of the new Gautrain development into perspective, Singh and Associates Strategic Solutions has come up with a few suggestions on what could be done with the R13bn extra the development will now cost (as opposed to the initially expected R7bn).

Instead of a train you could buy some top of the range S-class Mercedes Benz and park them nose to tail to form a ” train” that would be long enough to go around the world.

Since most South Africans use minibus taxis instead of S-Class Mercedes Benz, you could run a fleet of taxis, free of charge to commuters, from Johannesburg to Pretoria with a taxi leaving each town every two minutes, maintain them at the AA rate of R2.50 per km, replace all the taxis every month and you would only run out of money after 50 years.

You could add 44 more lanes to the M1 highway.

If you prefer to walk, a good bricklayer, if he made little brick tiles using stacks of 30 R100 notes, could lay a blue paved walkway, 1m wide from Johannesburg to Pretoria. We would have R400 000 left over to pay the bricklayer for his work, which should only take half as long to finish as the Gautrain.

Or if you want smart people to figure this out you could pay for a university degree for every single 19 year old Gauteng resident and ask them what to do with the money.

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3 Responses to “What Would You Do With Gautrain’s R13bn?”

1. Michelle says:

   2005/12/15 at 09:52

   Holy flippin’ cow! I thought 13bn a bit excessive – you’ve given me the facts to back that up. Geez… is it really worth it, I wonder?
2. Aquila says:

   2005/12/15 at 10:24

   I vote for the fleet of free taxis for the next 50 years…
3. Jacqueline says:

   2005/12/15 at 17:53

   Holy Schmoly!!! That is going to cost a bomb.

   I´m with you, upgrade the taxi´s or buy new ones so that they are safe. As an added bonus send all taxi drivers on a real driving course so they can learn some road etiquette.