Sandton (Gautrain station)
Encyclopedia
Sandton is a metro station
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

 on the Gautrain
Gautrain
Gautrain is an mass rapid transit railway system in Gauteng Province, South Africa, which links Johannesburg, Pretoria, and OR Tambo International Airport...

 rapid transit system in Sandton, Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

. It opened to traffic on 8 June 2010 with service to OR Tambo International Airport.

Location

Sandton station is located in the neighbourhood of the same name in northern Johannesburg, specifically near the Sandton Square development at the intersection of Rivonia and West Streets.

Transit-oriented development

Developers and the Gauteng government aim to make Sandton station the centre of one of the first transit-oriented development
Transit-oriented development
A transit-oriented development is a mixed-use residential or commercial area designed to maximize access to public transport, and often incorporates features to encourage transit ridership...

 projects in South Africa. Because of the area's financial importance, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange being a major focal point, and location near a number of important roads, such development would also require an upgrade of the arterial road network in the surrounding area.

The area surrounding Sandton station has been divided into six management areas, which cover land use, development density, and pedestrian accessibility. Management Area 1, bounded by Sandton Street, Katherine Street, Rivonia Road, and Fredman Drive, encircles Sandton Square and the immediate vicinity of the station and is planned to contain buildings of up to 40 storeys with a development density of 110 units per hectare, thus categorising it as high-density and mixed-use. In addition, a series of pedestrian corridors will traverse the district, creating a grid to enable more pedestrian-friendly development and to encourage walking and sustainability. Subsequent and more distant management areas have lower height restrictions of ten to fifteen storeys while maintaining the 110 units per hectare density requirement, which centralises development towards a defined central business district.

Station layout

Architecturally, Sandton is unique amongst Gautrain stations. Although it is not the only underground station, it is the only one with a two-level platform arrangement. The upper level serves trains on the north-south axis of the system, with trains heading southbound to Park Station in central Johannesburg and northbound to Pretoria, while the lower level has only one platform and acts as the terminus for OR Tambo International Airport-bound trains.

Services

Sandton station is the operational hub of the Gautrain system. Along with Marlboro, it is one of only two stations in the entire network to be served by all trains on the Airport and North-South lines. In addition, Sandton also has six additional feeder bus routes bringing riders from more distant areas to the station. Numbered S1-6, the buses will travel to Wendywood (S2), Rivonia (S3), Randburg (S4), Fourways (S5), and Rosebank (S6), as well as a Sandton CBD loop (S1).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK