Transportation
Johannesburg is a young and sprawling city, with its public transportation built in its infancy, geared towards private motorists, and lacks a convenient public transportation system. The City though has invested a large percentage of its budget toward an effective integrated public transportation system. A significant number of the city's residents are dependent on the city's informal minibus taxis.
Johannesburg shares a network of metropolitan routes with Krugersdorp and Ekurhuleni. The fact that Johannesburg is not near a large navigable body of water has meant that ground transportation has been the most important method of transporting people and goods in and out of the city. One of Africa's most famous "beltways" or ring roads/orbitals is the Johannesburg Ring Road. The road is composed of three freeways that converge on the city, forming an 80-kilometre (50 mi) loop around it: the N3 Eastern Bypass, the N1 Western Bypass and the N12 Southern Bypass. The N3 was built exclusively with asphalt, while the N12 and N1 sections were made with concrete, hence the nickname given to the N1 Western Bypass, "The Concrete Highway". In spite of being up to 12 lanes wide in some areas, the Johannesburg Ring Road is frequently clogged with traffic. The Gillooly's Interchange (renamed George Bizos Interchange in 2021), built on an old farm and the point at which the N3 Eastern Bypass and the R24 Airport Freeway intersect, is the busiest interchange in the Southern Hemisphere. It is claimed that the N1 is the busiest road in South Africa.
Johannesburg has a lot of freeways connected to it. The N1 connects northwards to Pretoria and Polokwane and southwards to Bloemfontein and Cape Town. The N3 connects south-east to Durban. The N12 connects westwards to Potchefstroom and Kimberley and eastwards to eMalahleni. The N14 passes at the north-western corner of the Johannesburg Municipality, connecting Pretoria with Krugersdorp. The N17 connects eastwards to Ermelo and Eswatini. The R21 connects the East Rand and O. R. Tambo International Airport with Pretoria. The R24 connects the Johannesburg CBD with the airport. The R59 connects southwards to Vereeniging and Sasolburg. The M1 connects the Johannesburg CBD with the northern suburbs and the southern suburbs. The M2 connects the Johannesburg CBD with the Germiston CBD to the east. The M1 and M2 freeways are congested due to mass urbanisation.
Johannesburg also has a lot of non-freeway routes that connect to other towns and cities. The R24 connects the Johannesburg city centre with Roodepoort, Krugersdorp and Rustenburg to the west. The R25 connects Johannesburg's northern suburbs with Modderfontein and Kempton Park to the north-east. The R29 connects the city centre with Germiston, Boksburg and Benoni to the east. The R41 connects the city centre with Roodepoort and Randfontein to the west. The R55 connects Sandton with Pretoria West to the north. The R82 connects Johannesburg with Vereeniging to the south. The R101 connects Sandton with Midrand, Centurion and Pretoria to the north. The R511 connects Sandton with Diepsloot and Hartbeespoort to the north. The R512 connects Randburg with Lanseria International Airport and Hartbeespoort to the north.
Johannesburg is served by a bus fleet operated by MetroBus, a corporate unit of the City of Johannesburg. It has a fleet consisting of approximately 550 single and double-decker buses, plying 84 different routes in the city. This total includes 200 modern buses (150 double-deckers and 50 single-deckers), made by Volvo, Scania AB and Marcopolo/Brasa in 2002. Metrobus' fleet carries approximately 20 million passengers per annum. In addition, there are a number of private bus operators, though most focus on the inter-city routes, or on bus charters for touring groups. The city's main bus terminus is situated in Gandhi Square, where passengers can also obtain information regarding the Metrobus service from the walk-in customer information desk.
In 2010, in order to create an efficient public transport system, the Rea Vaya bus rapid system was developed/built. The buses run on their own dedicated bus lanes on the main trunk and complementary routes. The buses also have large feeder routes that run on ordinary roads. The Rea Vaya works on a smartcard payment system. Upon entering the station or bus, the passenger taps his/her smartcard onto the validator/scanner and taps out at the next station with the calculated amount. The routes cover both the southern and northern suburbs with the main trunk route running from Soweto to Sandton and Rosebank, and the feeder and complementary routes covering most of Johannesburg, with the notable exceptions of Midrand and Centurion. A subsequent expansion (phase 1-C;1-D) will cover these areas. In 2017, the Rea Vaya bus rapid transit was recorded to be making huge losses recovering only about 40 per cent of the operating costs and relying heavily on government subsidies.
Johannesburg has two kinds of taxis, metered taxis and minibus taxis. Unlike many cities, metered taxis are not allowed to drive around the city looking for passengers and instead must be called and ordered to a destination. The Gauteng Provincial Government has launched a new metered taxi programme in an attempt to increase the use of metered taxis in the city.
The minibus "taxis" are the de facto standard and essential form of transport for the majority of the population. Since the 1980s, the minibus taxi industry has been severely affected by turf wars.
Johannesburg is served principally by O. R. Tambo International Airport (formerly Johannesburg International Airport and before that Jan Smuts Airport) for both domestic and international flights. Lanseria Airport, located to the north-west of the city and closer to the business hub of Sandton, is used for commercial flights to Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Botswana, and Sun City. Other airports include Rand Airport and Grand Central Airport. Rand Airport, located in Germiston, is a small airfield used mostly for private aircraft and the home of South African Airways' first Boeing 747–200 ZS-SAN and also 747SP ZS-SPC and now serves as an aviation museum. Grand Central is located in Midrand and also caters to small, private aircraft.
The Metrorail Gauteng commuter rail system connects central Johannesburg to Soweto, Pretoria, and most of the satellite towns along the Witwatersrand. The railways transport huge numbers of commuters every day. However, the Metrorail infrastructure was built in Johannesburg's infancy and covers only the older areas in the city's south. The northern areas, including the business districts of Sandton, Midrand, Randburg, and Rosebank, are served by the rapid rail link Gautrain.
A part of the Gauteng Provincial Government's Blue IQ Project, Gautrain has made provision for a rapid rail link, running north to south, between Johannesburg and Pretoria, and west to east between Sandton and the OR Tambo International Airport. Construction of the Gautrain Rapid Rail started in October 2006 and was completed in June 2012. It consists of a number of underground stations, as well as above-ground stations. Stations on the north–south line include Johannesburg's Park Station (underground), Rosebank (underground), Sandton (underground), Marlboro (above-ground and raised), Midrand, Pretoria Station and Hatfield. There is also a line from the O.R. Tambo International Airport (above-ground and raised) travelling to Sandton via Rhodesfield (raised) and Marlboro. A 200-kilometre expansion is underway and will consist of 3 new lines and 18 new stations, and is expected to cost R18 billion and one-lines (Soweto Mamalodi) could take 4 years to build, most of the new stations will be in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Several lines will be added including a line running from Marlboro to Soweto station at Sandton, as well as new stations at Randburg, Cosmo City, Little Falls, Roodepoort and Jabulani in between.
The east–west line from the airport to Sandton opened in June 2010 in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, while the north–south line opened on 2 August 2011, except for Park Station, which opened in 2012.
The rail system was designed to alleviate traffic on the N1 freeway between Johannesburg and Pretoria, which records vehicle loads of up to 300,000 per week day. An extensive bus feeder system has also been implemented, which allows access to the main stations from the outer suburbs, but is limited to a five-kilometre radius, which neglects the rest of the suburbs. This is the first new major railway system that has been laid in South Africa since 1977.
In 2010, a high-speed rail link was proposed between Johannesburg and Durban.
City Deep Terminal is the name of Africa's largest dry port and was officially opened by the South African Railways Services (SARS) in 1977. The container terminal is connected to the Port of Durban, Port of Ngqurha, Port of Cape Town, as well as Southern Africa by road and rail. At least forty percent of container export/imports run on the Natal Corridor (Natcor) which is directly linked by rail to City Deep.
