SOUTH AFRICA: Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa has restarted its Metrorail suburban rail services on five sections of the networks in the provinces of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.
Local rail services across the country had been disrupted by a spate of vandalism and cable theft which occurred during and after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020, when Prasa was forced to suspend operation on multiple routes. The latest services were restored at the end of March as part of a phased programme intended to revive the state-owned operator’s fortunes after years of service disruption and political challenges.
Mixed picture in Gauteng
Prasa has restored services on three sections of the dense suburban rail network in Gauteng province, which is centred in the Johannesburg-Tshwane conurbation.
The seven-station Langlaagte – Florida section of the Langlaagte – Randfontein line and the three-station New Canada – Nancefield section of the lines from New Canada to Vereeniging and Oberholzer have been put back into use. These allow services to run from Johannesburg Park station to Florida and Nancefield.
Prasa has also restored the one-station Germiston – Elsburg section of the line from Germiston to Vereeniging and Kwesine.
However, the operator also announced the suspension of suburban services on the Union – Vereeniging line due to ‘technical challenges and low demand’ with effect from April 1.
Western Cape and Durban work
On the Western Cape network centred in Cape Town, Prasa has restored trains between Eersterivier and Stellenbosch. This allows its Northern line trains to run through from Cape Town station to Stellenbosch.
Prasa says it has also made ‘significant progress on the restoration of the Central line, with ongoing efforts to rehabilitate rail infrastructure from Phillippi to Nolungile and onwards to Chris Hani. This work has been facilitated by the temporary relocation of 891 households from the Phillippi station area, enabling us to proceed with necessary recovery work.’
Prasa had already reintroduced services in April 2023 between Langa and Nyanga on the strategically important Central line, the alignment of which had been occupied by informal settlers at several locations.
In KwaZulu-Natal, Prasa has restored services between Merebank and Chatsglen, serving four stations. This leaves only a short section left to reopen before a full restoration of the Durban – Crossmoor route can be delivered.
31 corridors in use
In total, Prasa reports that it has brought 31 of its 40 suburban rail lines back into partial operation across the country as of April. It says it is continuing to work on achieving operation over the full length of the five routes in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape which it partially restored at the end of March.
‘Recognising the growing demand for our services, we are actively working to repair vandalised signalling equipment. These repairs are essential not only for the safe operation of our trains but also to increase the frequency of our services to meet our commuters’ needs. We remain steadfast in our mission to restore passenger rail as the backbone of public transport in South Africa’, Prasa said in a statement on April 3.
