An extension of the Gautrain system reaching the ‘township’ areas are being looked into.

The plans to expand the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link “to the eastern and western extremes of Gauteng" is part of the 25-year integrated Gauteng Master plan, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said on Tuesday.

“The feasibility study will look at the possibility of expanding the Gautrain services to Mamelodi and Soweto.”

Peters also said that this may include the Fourways area.

“From the initial indications from the input from the public, there’s also a call to include Fourways in the line, so I would believe out of the consultative processes for the 25 year integrated plan for the Gauteng province, they would be able to give an indication of the areas that will be covered, but in particular they would want to include the township areas.”

Gauteng's Transport MEC Ismail Vadi says the Gautrain project has created over 30 000 permanent jobs so far, with the extension project promising even more jobs. 

"We have created over 30 000 jobs through the Gautrain project and those will be your permanent type of jobs in the related industry. And during the construction phase, almost 120 000 jobs were created over the last six or seven years. The department of Roads and Transport has got a 25-year transport master plan in place, and based on that plan we do foresee possible extension of the Gautrain system over the next 15 years or so." 

Improvements and renovations were also planned for Metro rail and Passenger rail trains across the country.