Cheapest ways to travel in Johannesburg and Pretoria

It is far more affordable to use the Gautrain network in Gauteng to get to work and back than to use ride-hailing or drive the cheapest car in the country, a MyBroadband analysis has revealed.

South Africa’s fuel prices remain relatively high, making the cost of driving and maintaining a car a challenge for many motorists.

MyBroadband compared the cost of buying and driving the cheapest car in South Africa — the Suzuki S-Presso — to riding the Gautrain or using ride-hailing services for the same routes.

We selected three routes based on the Gautrain network and based our calculations on the ride-hailing and driving costs on these routes. They are as follows:

• Sandton Gautrain Station to Centurion Gautrain Station
• Rosebank Gautrain Station to Midrand Gautrain Station
• Kempton Park (OR Tambo International Airport) to Hatfield Gautrain Station

We selected peak-hour rates for the Gautrain fares because most office workers travel to and from work in the mornings and evenings.

For the Sandton to Centurion route, the Gautrain fare is R72 each way, and the Rosebank to Midrand route is R20 cheaper at R72 each way.

The Kempton Park to Hatfield trip is the longest, with Gautrain charging a fare of R234 each way.

On a monthly basis, assuming 22 workdays per month, the Sandton to Centurion route works out to R3,168, while the Rosebank to Midrand journey will cost R2,288 monthly.

Those travelling from Kempton Park to Hatfield daily will pay R10,296 per month.

Note that these do not include travel costs to and from the respective Gautrain stations.

For the ride-hailing option, we selected the most affordable peak hour fare for each from Uber and Bolt.

Bolt was cheapest for the Kempton Park to Hatfield and Sandton to Centurion routes, while Uber was slightly cheaper for the other.

The ride-hailing option is the second-most affordable. However, it is still nearly three times the price of the Gautrain for the Sandton to Centurion route.

The route will cost ride-hailing users R9,169 per month, and those travelling between Rosebank and Midrand every day will pay R5,236 per month.

Notably, the difference in price between Gautrain and ride-hailing for the Kempton Park to Hatfield route wasn’t as significant, with ride-hailing users paying R12,584 per month.

The Suzuki S-Presso 1.0 GL Manual is currently the most affordable car in South Africa, which costs R178,900. We used Wesbank’s Vehicle Finance Calculator to calculate the monthly repayments for the vehicle.

Assuming a 60-month period, 13% interest, and 10% residual payment, South Africans can expect to pay R3,953.75 monthly to finance the Suzuki Spresso 1.0 GL Manual.

According to Tracker, the approximate cost per kilometre for the Suzuki S-Presso 1.0 GL Manual works out to R4.84/km.

This includes the combined cost of petrol, maintenance, and insurance.

Based on this, driving the Suzuki S-Presso is the most expensive option for Gauteng motorists.

It will cost R11,620 per month for commuters travelling from Sandton to Centurion or vice versa daily and R8,213 monthly for those commuting between Rosebank and Midrand.

Those who travel between Kempton Park and Hatfield daily will pay approximately R14,815 monthly.

It remains cheaper to use the Gautrain even when carpooling with another person, except on the commute between Pretoria and Kempton.

The Gautrain option becomes significantly more expensive than the rest for the Kempton Park to Hatfield route when adding a second ticket.

This pushes the monthly price of travel up to nearly R20,600. Ride-hailing and driving prices remain the same as they can carry more than one passenger.

The table below compares the cost of driving the Suzuki S-Presso to riding the Gautrain or using ride-hailing for three significant routes.