{"id":7713,"date":"2014-05-23T09:20:31","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T09:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jda.dev.griam.co.za\/?p=7713"},"modified":"2018-08-24T09:30:30","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T09:30:30","slug":"park-station-gateway-to-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/park-station-gateway-to-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Park Station: gateway to Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johannesburg’s Park Station is a hive of pan-African activity as travellers from across the continent hop on and off the many buses passing through it each day. Now the area is set to become a cultural and transit precinct, reminiscent of New York’s bustling Grand Central Station.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joburg’s answer to an African-inspired take on Grand Central Station and Times Square in New York will soon be a reality with the newly revamped Park Station Precinct.<\/p>\n

According to the City’s Executive Mayor Parks Tau, the Precinct will capture the public’s imagination through the Johannesburg Development Agency’s (JDA) development work in the inner city.<\/p>\n

He stated a strong need to capitalise on the welcoming role that Park Station plays since it’s “the gateway to Africa” and stressed the significance of showcasing African food and culture.<\/p>\n

The JDA will look to create a sustainable precinct with a safe play space for children, additional green spaces, markets for informal traders, managed parking, taxi facilities, public toilets, and safe walking spaces for cyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n

Architect David Adjaye is set to collaborate with local architects on a design pavilion in the precinct. The bulk of the public environment upgrade work is scheduled to be completed by 2014\/15. This includes lighting, landscaping, paving, street furniture, and branding to create a safe night-time activity zone around a public square in the precinct.<\/p>\n

Construction is being phased in, with the JDA undertaking projects, such as the\u00a0Inner City Commuter Links<\/a>; Metro Park\/Transnet Land; and the\u00a0African Food and Cultural Hub<\/a>\u00a0in the precinct in 2013\/14.<\/p>\n

The City of Johannesburg’s department of housing is also planning to build integrated mixed-use developments in the area; these will include subsidised and social housing, which will be backed by retail and commercial space.<\/p>\n

Park Station Precinct is the primary transit exchange in the city, with more than 1 million commuters using public transport such as Rea Vaya, Gautrain, Metrorail, and taxis, among others.<\/p>\n

In line with Johannesburg’s Growth and Development Strategy (GDS2040), the JDA has prioritised public transport as part of its development plans.<\/p>\n

This new spatial vision is based on the\u00a0Corridors of Freedom<\/a>\u00a0-well-planned transport arteries. These Corridors are intended to link interchanges to mixed-used spaces – such as high-density accommodation – supported by office buildings, retail development and opportunities for leisure and recreation. This will allow commuters easy travelling on public transport.<\/p>\n

The precinct surrounds Africa’s largest and busiest railway service, Park Station, in the heart of the inner city. The railway line runs west to Carletonville, Randfontein and Soweto; east to Springs, Nigel and Daveyton; north to Pretoria; and south to Vereeniging.<\/p>\n

Park Station is also the terminus of Shosholoza Meyl, the long-distance rail service to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein via Kimberley, Komatipoort via Nelspruit, and Musina via Polokwane.<\/p>\n

Once the precinct is complete, visitors will experience a breathtakingly opulent quarter, rich in African splendour, offering easy movement to the rest of the province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johannesburg’s Park Station is a hive of pan-African activity as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-releases-2014"],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jda.org.za\/archived\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}