Right next to Eerste River railway station — a short distance from Penhill — a privately developed transport and retail hub called 1st Hub is planned. It’s often referred to locally as a “bus depot,” though that’s not quite accurate: it isn’t a fleet storage/maintenance yard like Golden Arrow’s depots at Montana or Elsies River. It’s a multi-modal commuter interchange combined with a small-business retail centre.
Location
The site sits roughly 15m from Eerste River railway station and about 35m from the local minibus taxi rank, within the area’s designated Public Transport Zone 2 — directly on Penhill’s doorstep.
What’s planned
- 300+ retail spaces, built using repurposed shipping containers
- A projected 4,000+ daily commuter foot traffic
- An estimated 600+ new local jobs across retail, food, services and transport
- Integration of rail, minibus taxi, Golden Arrow (GABS) bus routes, and interprovincial/cross-border bus services on one site
- Rental positioning aimed at small businesses and entrepreneurs
- Onward routes toward Bellville, Cape Town CBD, the Southern Suburbs, Stellenbosch and Somerset West
Status
1st Hub is presented on its developer’s own website as an active private development, not a City of Cape Town public transport project. No independent news coverage has been found confirming a construction timeline or opening date, so treat the scale and scope above as the developer’s own projections rather than confirmed fact.
This page will be updated as more concrete information becomes available.