I conduct a photo stream on Old Cape Town on Flickr here http://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/sets/72157600938342274/
and are looking for some dates on the Cape Town Railway Station during the period 1960-1970. Could you perhaps help or point me in the right direction (a Google search could not supply what I am after.

Here are my questions;
(a) When did they commence with building of the “new” station.
(b) When was it taken into use.
(c) When did the old station cease operations and when was it demolished.
(d) On what date did the start with building work on the Paul Sauer building and when
was it finished.

Hope you can shed some light on this

Groete,

Etienne du Plessis.

Err, what? Cape Town Station is quickly starting to look like crap again (I mean literally… there’s literally pigeon crap running down the walls) – and this is what, a year after it was completed?

Not to mention the vast array of “little glass doors” of which 5% seem to get used – and then they stand wide open, instead of being used as intended? There also seems to be an absolute insistence on bring each of these doors back to a two-way traffic flow, instead of a one-way one, as intended. The arrow indicators almost always point in the wrong direction, as what the official is actually doing. About 10% of the “little glass doors” appear to already be broken, as if having been forced.

There appears to have gone quite a bit of thought into the design of the new refurbishment and absolutely zero thought into actually implementing this design into the work methods of the officials.

The refurbishment was a complete waste of money, in my opinion. Zero value has been added. It used to look historical, but quite worn. Now it looks new and vandalised. It’s actually embarrassing.

And I have to admit, it took a bit of looking around and headscratching to figure it all out. And I’m not stupid.

I highly doubt that everyone who has places to be and people to see will be gawking around, trying to find a sign and make sense of it all. This is a new thing, and I’m sure that it will settle in with time, but to start off the process, public awareness must be increased.

I agree that different colour road markings should be the number one priority. Orange might be too close to yellow/red, and I don’t think cool colours will dissuade anyone. (Green means “Go”). What about pink? =-)

But it’s also true that the best way to make sure everyone starts respecting the space, is to make sure that it’s used more extensively. Perhaps some sponsorship would be in order to get more people cycling. And how about convincing FedEx (photo #1) to use some bike messengers as well, like in NYC?

Brand Cape Town is clean, it can be argued that it is green but the underlying question that should inform the establishment of the EDA is whether the Western Cape is economically smart?

Since its launch brand Cape Town has positioned itself as arguably one of the most sought after tourism destinations globally , however there is little or understanding of how the growth in the tourism fraternity has impacted on the promotion and viability of other key economic sectors in the province. Brand Cape Town has concentrated international visitors to the Cape Town metropole leaving little or no exposure semi-urban and rural economic sectors resulting in a disjointed and fragmented economic development activities.

Whilst Cape Town is positioned as a premier tourism destination globally it can be argued that the economic perception of the Western Cape has yet to have the desired impact that would result in a more inclusive and more robust center of economic activity.

Whilst key sectors like boatbuilding and ICT (Call centers) have grown significantly, again these have been focused on the metropole whilst skills in the semi-urban and rural areas of the Western Cape are rearing to be developed.

There is no shortage of individual passion and drive for the citizens of the province to develop themselves, there are structural inefficiencies that are resulting in our citizens being unable to leverage on the activities being driven by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism Western Cape and these can be spelled out as follows:

• The lack of an efficient and accessible (financially and otherwise) transport
system between the metropoles and semi-urban and rural areas.

• Economic development activities are activated in absence well established
and verified research activites

• Post matric education and training activities are disjointed and unstructured

• There is little intervention from colleges and universities to develop training
centers in semi-urban and rural areas.

• Little to no participation is evident from rural structures when policy and strategy
discussions are activated at broader strategic levels.

• The proverbial “Red Tape “

A key example to illustrate the deficiencies outlined above is the attempt to establish a fish farming operation in rural Western Cape in 2008. Whilst the research showed the Rural Western Cape has the right climate, natural resources and a large captive market
(protein hungry rural Africa), the industry has not been developed to the desired outcomes, despite significant funding being received from private investors from Norway. The result being the closure of two such fish farms. Are we staring gold in the face and walking away?

The question begs how we resolve the deficiencies to benefit the citizens of our province and in doing so establishing the PROVINCE as a vibrant Centre for economic activity and participation that will form a basis and role model for the rest of Africa.
To quote Prime Minister Clarke of New Zealand “We need to develop our economic sectors to be robust, efficient and result driven otherwise we will be dangerously close to marketing a white elephant”.

The Research shows that we need to:
• identify the key sectors we wish to develop
• empower the rural citizens to ensure skills are developed in these sectors
• establish a more robust and accessible transport system for the movement of
goods and services between rural and urban areas.
• ensure world class products and services are delivered
• establish centers of economic activities in semi-urban and rural Western Cape
which must lead to the establishment of economic corridors in the Cape.
• Our political masters must ensure that the proverbial Red Tape is eliminated
• Establish focused international marketing activities promoting the product
coming out of the Western Cape as best of breed and establishing our business
reputation in key international markets.

For examples of how urban and rural linkages work best we need to better understand how leading agricultural economies ensure product is delivered efficiently and effectively to urban centers for international export. This will clearly show efficiency in transport mechanics and rural centers of vibrant economic activity. Examples of flourishing urban-rural economic linkages can be found in Australia, Canada and the Netherlands all which have one common denominator being: Inclusive and active participation in the politics of economics by all sectors of society.

Brand Cape Town is clean, it can be argued that it is green but the underlying question that should inform the establishment of the EDA is whether the Western Cape is economically smart?

Since its launch brand Cape Town has positioned itself as arguably one of the most sought after tourism destinations globally , however there is little or understanding of how the growth in the tourism fraternity has impacted on the promotion and viability of other key economic sectors in the province. Brand Cape Town has concentrated international visitors to the Cape Town metropole leaving little or no exposure semi-urban and rural economic sectors resulting in a disjointed and fragmented economic development activities.

Whilst Cape Town is positioned as a premier tourism destination globally it can be argued that the economic perception of the Western Cape has yet to have the desired impact that would result in a more inclusive and more robust center of economic activity.

Whilst key sectors like boatbuilding and ICT (Call centers) have grown significantly, again these have been focused on the metropole whilst skills in the semi-urban and rural areas of the Western Cape are rearing to be developed.

Whilst there is no shortage of individual passion and drive for the citizens of the province to develop themselves, there are structural inefficiencies that are resulting in our citizens being unable to leverage on the activities being driven by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism Western Cape and these can be spelled out as follows:

• The lack of an efficient and accessible (financially and otherwise) transport
system between the metropoles and semi-urban and rural areas.

• Post matric education and training activities are disjointed and unstructured

• There is little intervention from colleges and universities to develop training
centers in semi-urban and rural areas.

• Little to no participation is evident from rural structures when policy and strategy
discussions are activated at broader strategic levels.

• The proverbial “Red Tape “

A key example to illustrate the deficiencies outlined above is the attempt to establish a fish farming operation in rural Western Cape in 2008. Whilst the research showed the Rural Western Cape has the right climate, natural resources and a large captive market ( protein hungry rural Africa), the industry has not been developed to the desired outcomes, despite significant funding being received from private investors from Norway. The result being the closure of two such fish farms. Are we staring gold in the face and walking away?

The question begs how we resolve the deficiencies to benefit the citizens of our province and in doing so establishing the PROVINCE as a vibrant Centre for economic activity and participation that will form a basis and role model for the rest of Africa.
To quote Prime Minister Clarke of New Zealand “We need to develop our economic sectors to be robust, efficient and result driven otherwise we will be dangerously close to marketing a white elephant”.

The Research shows that we need to:
• identify the key sectors we wish to develop
• empower the rural citizens to ensure skills are developed in these sectors
• establish a more robust and accessible transport system for the movement of
goods and services between rural and urban areas.
• ensure world class products and services are delivered
• establish centers of economic activities in semi-urban and rural Western Cape
which must lead to the establishment of economic corridors in the Cape.
• Our political masters must ensure that the proverbial Red Tape is eliminated
• Establish focused international marketing activities promoting the product
coming out of the Western Cape as best of breed and establishing our business
reputation in key international markets.

For examples of how urban and rural linkages work best we need to better
understand how leading agricultural economies ensure product is delivered
efficiently and effectively to urban centers for international export. This will
clearly show efficiency in transport mechanics and rural centers of vibrant
economic activity. Examples of flourishing urban-rural economic linkages can
be found in Australia, Canada and the Netherlands all which have one common
denominator being: Inclusive and active participation in the politics of economics
by all sectors of society.