The Gautrain is Frikkie Awesome!

Okay we know the cables for the Gautrain have been stolen and it's not working 100% again, but last Friday Frikkie Awesome decided to take a trip on the Gautrain and see what it was all about and how it all worked. We decided on a trip from Hatfield to Sandton, have lunch in Sandton and then catch the train back to Hatfield. What we were curious about was did the system actually work that well... And the simple answer is YES, it works damn well! 

So for first time users, you would drive to Hatfield station and enter using one of two entrances, either in Duncan Street or by using the Park street entrance. You would have to take a parking ticket, but this will be your first and last ticket using the Gautrain, I will explain why just now. So after you have parked in one of the many parking bays available, you can proceed up to the station itself. Here we were greeted by very friendly and helpful Gautrain staff, who offered to help us purchase our Gautrain Gold Cards. Now here is where it gets super cool, the gold card you purchase is yours forever and you can just keep topping it up with cash as you need it. This card not only allows you to ride up and down on the Gautrain, but it also allows you to pay for your parking at the stations and catch the Gautrain busses to and from the stations. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!!

 
So once you have purchased your gold card, you can proceed through the automatic gates and toward the platform. Now depending on where you are going to, you will obviously have to load enough cash onto the card so as to complete your journey. So for us we needed a minimum R86 on our cards because it was R43 to Sandton and R43 back to hatfield. Now the purpose of the Gautrain is to transport passengers to and from the destinations pretty quickly, so this means that there is a train every 20 minutes between 8:30 and 16:30 and every 12 minutes during the peak periods. So not long after arriving on the platform, our train pulled up and jumped on. We boarded and shortly after we were on our way! The ride is pretty smooth and really quiet and the seating is kinda comfy. The windows are nice and big, so you can watch the scenery fly past while the train does 160km/h!!! The train stops along the way at the various stations along the route, and it stops for about 2 minutes and then moves on, this meant that our journey from Hatfield to Sandton took us approximately 27 minutes... Not bad at all!!!

 

In all, the Gautrain is an awesome addition to our lives here in Gauteng, it's going to make it way easier to travel between P-town and Jozi and at the same time, lessen the traffic flow on the highways... So we give the Gautrain a huuuuge thumbs up and definitely recommend everyone  give it a try, because it's Frikkie Awesome!!!

Peace out. P-town!