Everyone who moves the country, in one hall for three days
Taxi, rail, bus, freight and the walk at either end. No session here ends without something written down.
See the programmeThree days in one hall on how the country actually moves.
14–16 October 2026 · Halls 5 and 6, Nasrec Expo Centre, Johannesburg. Fourteen hundred seats, and booking closes on 30 September or when the last one goes, whichever comes first.
I came expecting the usual thing, where the city people talk and the operators sit at the back with their arms folded. By the second morning I had a municipal planner and two route owners on the floor of Hall 6, arguing over a printed map.Sipho Radebe · route owner, Ivory Park · Interchange 2025
Four tracks
Every session sits in one of them. Follow a track for three days or move between them — nothing is booked, no room is closed, and everything is minuted.
Energy and fleet
Depots, diesel, charging, and what a 2 MVA connection really lets you run overnight. Six sessions across the three days.
Freight and the last mile
Rail against road on the N3 corridor, the queue at Beitbridge, and the delivery bike at the end of all of it.
Ranks and stations
The rank, the platform and the queue — where most of a South African journey is actually spent, and where almost nothing is designed.
Planning and route design
Route data, tap data, operating licences, and the awkward business of redrawing a route somebody already owns.
The programme
- Wed 09:00 · Opening — what actually changed on the ground since Interchange 2025, and what did not. Nomvula Sithole, MMC for Transport, City of Johannesburg.
- Wed 13:30 · The rank is the network. Why scheduling has to start at the rank and not the timetable. Chaired by Sipho Radebe, SANTACO Gauteng, with route owners from Ivory Park, Tembisa and Katlehong.
- Wed 16:00 · Twelve years of rolling stock, honestly costed. Dr Renske Fourie, transport economist, Stellenbosch. Figures handed out on paper in the room, not emailed afterwards.
- Thu 09:00 · Charging a 240-vehicle fleet on a 2 MVA depot connection. Ayanda Khumalo, fleet engineering, Golden Arrow Bus Services. Bring your own load profile.
- Thu 11:30 · What three years of tap data says about Rea Vaya. Open session, no slides, and the numbers go up at 11:00 the same morning.
- Thu 15:00 · Getting freight off the N3 — what it would actually cost and who would have to pay for it. Joint session with Transnet Freight Rail and the Road Freight Association.
- Fri 09:30 · The two kilometres nobody plans for: walking, waiting, and the last stretch home. Thandeka Mabaso, Sticks and Stones Urban Lab, Durban.
- Fri 14:00 · Closing floor. Ninety seconds each, no slides, minuted in the room and published the following Monday.
Speaking
Opens the summit on the Wednesday morning. She has held the Rea Vaya portfolio since 2023 and has agreed to take questions from the floor for as long as they keep coming.
Nineteen years in bus depots around Cape Town. He is bringing the real depot load profiles to the electrification session, including the two months where it did not work.
Costs rolling stock for a living and refuses to round anything off. Her Wednesday afternoon session comes with a printed appendix nobody else bothers to publish.
Maps the walk at either end of the trip — the part that never appears in a transport plan. She has surveyed forty-one ranks across eThekwini on foot.
Registration closes on 30 September, or when the 1 400th seat goes.
R2 950 for the three days. R850 for operators running fewer than ten vehicles, and free for anyone who drives one.
RegisterSANTACO Gauteng
Convening partner. Brings the route and rank operators into the hall, and chairs the Wednesday afternoon floor.
City of Johannesburg
Host city. Hall hire, Rea Vaya shuttles from Park Station, and the tap-data release on the Thursday morning.
Gautrain Management Agency
Runs the Thursday integration session and the ticketing workshop in the side room off Hall 5.
Transnet Freight Rail
Freight track partner, jointly with the Road Freight Association. Both sides on the same stage, on purpose.
Road Freight Association
Puts the operators' own numbers up for the N3 session, and stays in the room to answer for them.
SANRAL
Toll, corridor and maintenance figures for the freight and planning tracks, handed over as spreadsheets.
CSIR Smart Mobility
Runs the data clinic in Hall 5 — bring your own route file and leave with it cleaned and mapped.
University of Pretoria, Centre for Transport Development
Twelve postgraduate students working the floor as note-takers. The minutes you get afterwards are theirs.
Take a seat
One form, one delegate. Booking four or more? Send us the list at bespreek@interchange.co.za and we invoice once.