"... it is our intention that by the start [of the Gautrain] it will be near 2010," the agency's CEO Jack van der Merwe told journalists in Johannesburg during a tour of the project.

The agency intended completing the train and begin testing the track a month before the cup starts.

"We are trying to get the two aligned and we are trying to accelerate."

However, he cautioned that the Gautrain's usefulness would be contingent on supplementary public transport programs such as the Bus Rapid Transit system and the taxis.

One challenge remaining was a threatened strike by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA.

Van der Merwe said negotiations were being left to the company's organising body, the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors.

Sapa

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