Service design: pre-trip planning for international visitors attending the 2010 Soccer World Cup

Abstract

The 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, a multi-city event drawing visitors from around the world into the existing South-African transportation system, provides an opportunity to showcase and learn about the impact of different passenger transport service design strategies. However, bid and subsequent planning documents for the event have focused on macro issues relating to the envisaged public transport systems. Designing passenger transport services for the event requires a good understanding of the different end users at an operational level. For example, there has been limited discussion of how the expected thousands of international visitors might cope with planning and subsequently using available public transport. This paper aims to discuss the challenge to enhance the resources and highlights opportunities for research and development in trip planning resources. An overview is given of personal safety on public transport system in South Africa and international visitor public transport use while in South Africa. As a case study, the status quo of pre-trip planning resources in metro Johannesburg (the site of two of the ten soccer stadiums) is the described. This is followed by a discussion of trip planning resource challenges facing 2010 World Cup based on the existing situation if not corrected. The paper concludes that in the current public transport environment, attempting to do pre-trip planning using local public transport systems is fraught with difficulty and is, in some cases, impossible. It is imperative that online resources of South African public transport systems in venue cities meet minimum information standards as a matter of urgency as this will improve service levels and reduce the promotion of only a single mode, road-based private transport, as the system of choice during the event. That non-sustainable scenario has the potential to limit the success of the transport system as well as the regional economic benefit to South Africa