• On Friday this week, 10th May 2024, the Gautrain will be running until much later in the evening.
• Usually, the final trains of the day depart after 21:00, but only on Friday they will depart at 23:00.
• Gautrain says it is doing this to allow passengers to “enjoy more time out.”

This morning, Gautrain announced that on Friday 10th May, it will run its trains much later than usual.

According to the company, the last train on Friday will depart from the Hatfield and Park station, the final stations at the north and south of the line, respectively, at 23:00. This is much later than usual, as per the usual schedule, the final trains usually depart just after 21:00.

The Gautrain will start departing from each station at 30-minute intervals like normal, and standard fares apply. This means that on peak periods it will be slightly more expensive.

Via a post on X, Gautrain says it is adding this exclusive Friday schedule so that passengers get “more freedom to enjoy more time out.” The additional few hours of runtime is unusual for the company, as it only runs late-night trains until 23:00 on certain game days, like the Nedbank Cup Final in 2023 between the Orlando Pirates and Sekhukhune United.

As far as we can see there are no notable sporting events in Johannesburg on Friday 10th May, so it could simply be a new special runtime for Fridays on occasion. The company has run late trains on Fridays and Saturdays before in the past under the hashtag “Gautengs Big Night Out.”

In March 2014, it ran late night trains under to support several events that were happening that evening.

We do want to note that the late trains on Friday will allow certain passengers looking to either head to the airport for a late flight on Friday, or landing in the late evening to use the train, as the common 21:00 schedule hampers late flyers from using the service.

It will be interesting to see if Gautrain makes Friday’s schedule a more routine exercise.

While usually quiet, the Gautrain has been in the news recently for a power outage that left passengers trapped on the train between Centurion and Midrand for a few hours on a busy April morning. The company also recently took part in a publicity stunt in collaboration with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).

Check the official Gautrain websites for all scheduled times and fares.