GauTrain.....

Couple of weeks back, I visited South Africa. As an individual, I always feel happy to go back to this country as it brings back a lot of happy memories. It is like second home for me. I first visited South Africa with my family in 1994 and since then, I am somehow associated with this fabulous rainbow country. 

The country had gone through enormous changes during last 20 years and I am fortunate to witness them from close quarters.

This time, on my way back, I decided to take the new metro drive from Sandton city to airport. The airport name is changed now to O.R. Tambo airport.

All the previous times, one used to either take a taxi or request a friend for airport drop. There was no other means to reach the airport from the city. Of course, one used to avoid taxi those days. They were expensive and also were not reliable.  And it used to take minimum 45 minutes drive.

Now this metro drive was a sheer pleasure. The metro is named as GauTrain. Believe, it is after the name of the province ‘Gauteng’. The platforms are absolutely clean with ticket counters to help visitors like me. And you get a gold card when you buy the ticket; keeping up to the spirit of gold rush way back in the city of Johannesburg.

The comfort inside the train is world class with the train schedule absolutely on time. And the time taken to airport was less than 15 minutes. Wow! That is wonderful.

This time, if I remember anything beyond the business meetings and friendly get-togethers, then it is this drive on GauTrain!

Hope, when metro in Hyderabad comes up, I will see one from my place of stay to airport like GauTrain…..