Increasing Public Transport Market Share in South Africa: The Options

Abstract

Public transport in South Africa is facing increasing pressures as the need to do more with less increases. It must continue to attract new riders and retain existing ones as well as ensure support from the community at large. Marketing plays a critical role not only in assisting it to meet its objectives, but also to ensure its continued viability. To maximize its effectiveness, marketing must be viewed as a comprehensive process through which transit agencies develop and provide transit services and communicate its benefits to their employees, patrons, and the general public. While marketing strategies go a long way in building transit ridership, combining them with information and communication technologies is much more likely to engender long-term sustainability. However, this requires the forging of partnerships between transport authorities and operators in consultation with their customers. This paper highlights some of these issues.