With all my recent WC planning, I feel like I may be overlooking a major obstacle: getting to and from stadiums. I do not plan to rent a car but instead depend on taxis and public transportation within the cities (Johannesburg and Cape Town). I found the following site to be helpful regarding this: http://www.travelwithinsouthafrica.co.za/intercity.html (planning to use the park & ride service, or a taxi straight from my guest house to the stadium). My problem is with getting to the stadiums in nearby cities. For example, while being based in Jo'burg, I'd like to attend the US-England match in Rustenburg (and then make it back to Jo'burg after the match is over). Did anyone attend the Confederations Cup and utilize the Inter-City bus system detailed on that webpage? How was your experience? I'd like to avoid having to rent a car but I really hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot by doing so...
Most of the busses on your link, seem reliable to me...I'm just worried about time constraints. If there is enough time between matches, you should not have a problem with these busses: Baz Bus www.bazbus.com Citiliner www.citiliner.co.za Elwierda www.elwierda.co.za Greyhound www.greyhound.co.za InterCape www.intercape.co.za SA Roadlink www.saroadlink.co.za Springbok Atlas www.springbokatlas.com Translux www.translux.co.za The only real other problem i have with the busses, are the pickup points. The busses should be on time and all that, but my concern is people standing in places waiting for these busses. Now im referring to places like Pretoria Main station and Roodepoort station and what not as suggested in that link you gave us...How will you get to these stations? Will you wait alone? I don't mind the idea of taking these busses at all, but the waiting points and parking is more a concern for me....If you are a group, the problem becomes less of a concern than lets say one person...Whereas busses picking up from Menlyn Shopping Centre in Pretoria or Eastgate Shopping Centre in Johannesburg, would be much safer... I doubt that you will manage trips on busses like these all in just one day return....You may have to sleep over and then take a bus the following day? Play around with this search engine for booking bus tickets at computicket There one can see where "their" busses go to and from where...for example, I have seen some shopping centre pick up points which i consider safer than main city centre stations....Like Menlyn and Eastgate - and these busses go to places like Sun City and whatnot....so just play around and find out more about which suburb you are staying in so that you can find safer pick up points in more popular destinations like malls instead of haunted abandoned stations... And try and plan in the same way for your return
Thanks, emmex I will surely have a look at those links and will continue to monitor any news stories regarding mass transit between stadiums.
A friend did the Confederations Cup without renting a car but ended up taking a lot of lifts from other fans. It can be done though and the buses were reliable enough. Not to sure re late night returns though.