Last Transport Month, we argued that technology could help resolve the conflict, decay, and inefficiency plaguing South Africa's passenger transport sector.

A year on, the crisis has simply taken new forms. Commuter rail remains a fraction of its former capacity. Road freight corridors groan under volumes that belong on rail. Millions of South Africans still spend two to four hours a day getting to and from work. Minibus taxis, carrying more than 80% of daily commuters,  operate largely outside the formal subsidy system that sustains bus and rail. And for persons with disabilities, much of the network remains functionally inaccessible.

South Africa’s transport crisis is measured in opportunities lost: jobs beyond reach, hours spent commuting and goods delayed before they reach markets. This Transport Month, we should ask whether the country is prepared to make the governance, funding and planning decisions that an effective transport system requires.

Last year, we argued that technology could help address passenger transport’s conflict, decay and inefficiency. That remains true. But digital ticketing cannot compensate for a train that never arrives, and an app cannot undo the distance apartheid planning placed between homes and jobs.

The 44th Southern African Transport Conference (SATC), held in Pretoria in July 2026, offered evidence of both the scale of the problem and possible solutions. The challenge is turning those proposals into a connected system.

The Vision: Four Pillars of an Optimised System

Consider freight. At SATC, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy estimated that logistics inefficiencies cost the economy R1 billion a day. Separate conference research put annual delay costs at four major border crossings at R15–16 billion, with heavy vehicles collectively losing an average of 68,000 hours a week waiting to cross.

These delays strengthen the case for digitised, standardised customs clearance. Freight visibility platforms, intermodal terminals and predictive rail maintenance could also improve reliability, helping shift cargo from congested roads back onto rail. But technology needs functioning infrastructure and institutions capable of maintaining it.

For passengers, integration should mean one journey across several operators: coordinated timetables, shared real-time information, unified ticketing and transport hubs that make connections practical. Today, commuters pay separately and carry the risk of missed connections themselves.

Affordability and accessibility must shape the design. Fare capping and means-tested digital subsidies could reduce costs, while demand-responsive shuttles could serve lower-density areas. Step-free stations, low-floor vehicles, audio-visual information and accessible digital interfaces should be baseline requirements, developed with disabled persons’ organisations.

Rebuilding rail also supports climate goals. Reliable services can draw passengers from private cars and reduce dependence on road transport. At SATC, stakeholders explored drone mapping and AI-assisted monitoring to protect PRASA corridors from vandalism and insecurity, supporting its ambition to grow annual passenger journeys from 101 million to 600 million by 2030/31.

Why We Are Not There Yet: Five Bottlenecks

That ambition depends on institutional recovery. Transnet and PRASA’s governance challenges cannot be solved by adding sensors to unreliable infrastructure. SATC’s engagement with Eskom chairperson Mteto Nyati on institutional turnaround, procurement corruption and public-private partnerships acknowledged the importance of this constraint.

Minibus taxis must be recognised as partners in that network. They carry the majority of public transport users, yet subsidies have historically favoured buses and rail. A system cannot claim to serve commuters while withholding structured support from the industry on which so many depend.

Funding presents another tension. The 2026 Budget announced a roughly R8.4 billion reduction in the Public Transport Network Grant over three years because investment had not sufficiently improved access. Stronger accountability is necessary, but reduced funding makes expansion harder. Government must address poor delivery while maintaining investment in services people need.

Fragmented planning across national, provincial and municipal government remains a barrier. Housing approved far from employment, without coordinated transport provision, locks another generation into costly journeys.

We must also move beyond planning that merely follows existing demand. Transport investment should help determine where new housing, jobs and services develop. Otherwise, we risk building better connections to settlement patterns that continue to reproduce inequality.

What Government Is Doing

There are encouraging commitments. PRASA’s corridor recovery programme and R5.8 billion in rolling stock renewal aim to rebuild passenger capacity. The Budget Facility for Infrastructure approved R21.9 billion for major projects, including Transnet corridor rehabilitation. SATC also examined frameworks for private rail operators, while SANRAL showcased more than 170 Weigh-in-Motion systems to detect overloading and protect roads.

What remains largely unaddressed: a structured funding mechanism for the minibus taxi industry proportionate to the share of commuters it carries, and an explicit national commitment to transport-led urban restructuring rather than infrastructure that simply serves existing settlement patterns.

Lessons from the World

International experience offers practical lessons. Switzerland’s coordinated timetables show why the network, rather than individual operators, must be the unit of planning. Hong Kong’s Rail plus Property model uses development around stations to help fund rail and shape urban growth. Curitiba paired bus rapid transit with zoning, demonstrating that transport-led development need not depend on expensive rail infrastructure.

The Netherlands’ accessibility approach, Germany’s incentives for moving freight onto rail and Rwanda’s integration of informal operators reinforce the same lesson: policy must support the system technology is intended to enable.

South Africa has identified many of the tools it needs. What remains is sustained political commitment to accountable institutions, fairer subsidies, dependable funding and coordinated land-use planning.

This Transport Month, success should be judged by whether people can reach work affordably, passengers with disabilities can travel independently and goods move reliably. Technology can help deliver those outcomes. The decisions that make them possible remain ours.