I thought I better start posting my monthly update photo of the Gautrain Braamfontein Terminus progress. So here is my first Gautrain related photo of 2011. As you can see not much has changed since the 30 November other than the cloud has lifted slightly. The builders holiday plus rainy weather has also slowed the progress down.
Arriving into the city centre this morning I found a low cloud rolling in. The mist steadily got thicker and thicker as it pushed towards mid-day. At some point mid morning I could not even see the Gautrain Braamfontein Terminus construction yet alone Park Station. The sun got the better of it during the afternoon and it started to clear-up.
It was a busy day of knuckling down and doing some work for a change as tomorrow I will be out of the office all day on a shoot. Subject Top Secret only only for those in the know. You know what I mean. And I am in the know because they want photos of the event. I will leave you with my monthly photo of the progress of the Gautrain Braamfontein terminus.
Last night there were many thunderstorms which cause many accidents during this mornings rush. Here is a photo of one accident of a minibus taxi which jumped a red traffic light outside the Gautrain Braamfontein Terminus and hit a pickup. This caused a back-up for quite a few hours.
Today started like every other without a rain cloud in sight. Matter of fact it was a perfect day to take my usual monthly photo of the Gautrain Terminus building at Braamfontein as you can see. But later in the afternoon dark thunder clouds closed in and Johannesburg had it first real rain of the summer. It even hailed. What a perfect start of summer. You can smell rain soaking into every pore. Welcome summer.
Thank goodness Monday is under the belt, now for the rest of the week. It is downhill from here. The roof of the Gautrain’s Braamfontein Terminus is nearly completed. Things are coming along nicely.
At the Gautrain Braamfontein Terminus, construction workers are starting to put the roof onto the stations entrance. I wonder how soon this station will be added to Foursquare?
I got a call today from Carol saying that Telkom has been round and our phone is now up and running. I better check tonight if the DSL is also working. Wow over a month without internet. Not good. Today's photo is of the construction work progress of the Gautrain Braamfontein Terminus in the midday sun.
The Gautrain has been quite a bit in the news lately with its launch of operations last month. But ignoring the new Brothers for Life building wrap on the Schlesinger Building, they did not play it safe with a soft launch. Although they didn't have too, they rushed into operation the Airport-Sandton link just in time for the soccer world cup. Along with this came the teething problems that a soft launch and six months testing would have ironed out. But expectations of the public have all been met and the Gautengers along with hundreds of thousands visitors are very impressed with the Gautrain. We are proud to have what we hope is a start of many new public transport options. In today's photo is the construction of the Braamfontein Terminus of the Gautrain in the early morning light.
It is just two more sleeps until the launch of operations of Gautrain. The closer we come to the big soccer event the more the general public are getting into the thrill of it. Flags are fluttering everywhere even our ICT office at Metrorail is filled with flags hanging from the ceilings. The soccer teams have started to arrive and the fans from this weekend. We live in interesting times. I normally post a photo of the progress of the Gautrain terminus in Braamfontein at the beginning of the month and I did a lovely early morning photo less than a week ago (Dawn of a New Age) but I thought I better do another day one.
With just less than two weeks until the Gautrain is officially between Johannesburg International and Sandton, Gautrain releases the cost of the fares to the public. The black tie launch event is around the corner and I’m not going, sniff sniff, not even as a date. Anyway I will leave you this photo I took this morning of the Gautain Terminus in Braamfontein.
I had started to forget how blue Johannesburg winter skies are with all this rain we been having. It was a good day to take a progress photo of Gautrain's Braamfontein Terminus. The section between the airport and Sandton is opening on the 8 June which is only 34 days away.
The long weekend is over for me while some colleagues have taken these week days off to make a very long break. Well a big thank you to Angie and Gary because now I know that baby white rhino sounds like when they squeal for milk. I will try post other photos of the trip on Facebook. So today I am posting my monthly progress photo of the Gautrain Braamfontein Terminus.
I am very tired this morning. I am sure why but I did have a reasonable sleep last night. Anyway here is my monthly shot of progress at Gautrain's Braamfontein Terminus. You can see how the next floor has been added to the parking garage.
This word, Gukurahundi, still haunts the hordes of refugees in downtown Johannesburg as they try to irk a living among people who don't want them. Gukurahundi, the wind that sweeps away the chaff before the rain comes, still reaches with its long fingers down from Zimbabwe to its people huddled each night in the squalor at Johannesburg's Central Methodist Church who dream of going back but can’t until the cause of the Gukuranhudi, Uncle Bob, has conceded. They dream of dignity, the right of law, peace and food. So today as I looked towards the church which houses over 3,000 refugees every night, the rain and hail came squalling in to sweep the streets clean. People hurried to find refuge from the relentless rain. I think of the refugees that live along the river in the affluent northern suburbs and wonder if they would find shelter. I then turn from the present to look to the future, the relentless marching of progress, the Gautrain. In between the waves of rain, workers in orange overalls scurried over the Gautrain Terminus building trying to get much done before the next wave of water arrives. There is such a large gap between the haves and have-nots. Ah my beloved country, the Gukurahundi is still blowing. For more insight to the Central Methodist Church see Sokwanele's post "Address: Stair number four, Fourth Floor, Central Methodist Church, Johannesburg".
The summer rains are cascading down. Work above ground at the Gautrain Terminus has stopped due to the rain but will soon continue when the deluge lets up. The bad thing about this downpour is that I am on my bike later but the good thing about the bike is that all the traffic lights would be out due to the rain and I can easily slip past the standing traffic.
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