Cape Town - The Department of Transport and Passenger Rail Agency of SA chief executive Tshepo Montana insist commuters will not be compensated if they are late for work because of delayed trains.
They were responding to a call by provincial Cosatu leader Tony Ehrenreich for Metrorail to compensate commuters left stranded by late trains. Due to cable theft and technical problems with overhead wiring, delays of several hours were experienced by commuters on the central, Cape Flats and northern lines recently.
Comparing Metrorail to SAA, Ehrenreich said SAA compensated travellers who were inconvenienced.
“It is not an unreasonable request because people enter into a contract between commuters and Metrorail, which must be honoured. We will be taking this matter to the Equality Court.”
Although the “crisis” at Metrorail may have begun under apartheid, it was “exacerbated by present post-apartheid leadership”.
But Montana said: “We are not going to even consider that.” He said the promise of compensation would encourage criminals to steal.
“We must join hands with Cosatu to make sure we move forward with our plans for modernisation,” said Montana.
The Metrorail system was not a flexible system and one small cable theft could disrupt the whole system.
Cape Times