Confed Cup transport chaos

Park-and-ride services for the Confederations Cup have been dogged by problems all week, with hold-ups leaving fans late for games and then stuck after the matches.

Some spectators have missed up to the first half of the matches, and on Thursday night those who used the facilities from Ellis Park were stuck in the cold for more than two hours after the game, waiting for a taxi to their cars.

Chaos erupted at several different park-and-ride pick-up points at Ellis Park on Thursday, as many people were forced to find their own way to the pick-up points, which were not marked.

On Wednesday, thousands of fans arrived at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg after the first half of the key Bafana Bafana versus New Zealand game.

GauRide transports spectators from the park-and-ride sites, where iTransie shuttles take the people to the stadiums. The park-and-ride service is dealt with primarily by the City of Johannesburg's iTransie transport system, whereas the Gauteng provincial government provides the GauRide Transport Hub only in certain areas.

On Thursday afternoon the Local Organising Committee said it was working with host cities to improve the park-and-ride system, but by Thursday night's game it had still not been sorted out.

Lenasia resident Sam Patel, who watched the Egypt-Italy game at Ellis Park on Thursday, said the transport situation was "impossible".

He had parked at Southgate Mall and was hoping to get a taxi straight to Ellis Park.

"We got our tags and were in the taxi within five minutes, and I thought 'great'. But then, instead of going on the highway, they took us to Nasrec, where we were thrown out and had to get into a queue to get another taxi, which meant we were 20 minutes late for the game," he said.

"On our way out it was even more disastrous. There was about a kilometre-long queue. We got out of the stadium at 10.30pm, and by midnight we could only see the area where people were boarding. There were still another thousand people in front of us. At that point I realised that I was not getting out of there before 3am, and I arranged another lift."

While there were lots of taxis initially, by midnight there were none at the stadium.

"The organisers don't know what is going to hit them," said an irate Patel.

There were Egyptians and Germans in the queue with him.

"They said they were going home and they were not coming back for the World Cup. They said they were going to advise people not to come here for the World Cup because of our bad transport problems. We are in for serious, serious problems."

Mulbarton resident Harsha Budhia agrees with Patel.

Budhia had parked at the Wits West Campus to see the opening ceremony and game but, because of problems with parking, missed the entire opening ceremony.

One of the main problems, said Budhia, was that there was no proper queueing system.

"There was no system of how to go. People just pushed to get to the front."

Council spokesman Virgil James said: "The respective parties will be meeting soon for comprehensive feedback and proposals to remedy the situation. I trust that a statement will be released by Thursday."

Sipho Mbele, the 2010 project support office director, said they had not received any complaints about the system.