Staff Writer
METRORAIL commuters can finally kiss late trains and poor service goodbye and start looking forward to modern hi-tech trains like those used in major cities such as New York, Copenhagen and Boston.
Construction of elevated monorails are to begin as early as next month. This was revealed yesterday after senior executives of Metrorail’s parent company, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), were summoned to a cabinet meeting to explain why the national Transport Department had not been kept abreast of the ambitious plan.
“We’d rather not talk about that right now, but we can say that the work will be tackled with great speed. We’d like to see commuters plug in their laptops or watch movies on onboard screens in our coaches by year-end,” said Prasa executive Ndela Nde.
Trains on the monorail will be fitted with fast-food dispensers, laptop points and free wi-fi. Stations will be located at major transport hubs.
The rail, built with locally sourced materials, will initially run along the N2, split at the R300 and branch out to Bellville, Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain. Engineers have ruled out routes along False Bay and the Atlantic Seaboard, and explained that the sea air would corrode the elevated tracks.
“It is a very ambitious plan, but we have the money, in fact R23 billion of it, for the first phase,” said another executive, Lucky Manana.
“Cable theft will be a thing of the past because the system will function via microwave and satellite. The only cables will be that of your cellphone charger plugged in during your ride,” said Manana.
City bosses have expressed their dismay, saying the system undermined new MyCiti routes, while taxi operators vowed to go to court.
But most have welcomed the plan. “We have suffered for too long. My boss has become tired of me being late because of Metrorail service,” said commuter Johannes April.