More chaos for city trains

140731. Cape Town. An overcrowded train is seen leaving Nyanga Junction with people desperately trying to get to work. Metrorail fears if vandalism continues on its busiest line it may be forced to cancel its services on the route altogether. Cable signals were badly damaged on the Philippi line early on Wednesday morning on which thousands of commuters travel daily. With more than R2 million in damages and thousands of frustrated commuters, Metrorail says it’s dealing with a logistical and financial nightmare . Picture Henk Kruger

140731. Cape Town. An overcrowded train is seen leaving Nyanga Junction with people desperately trying to get to work. Metrorail fears if vandalism continues on its busiest line it may be forced to cancel its services on the route altogether. Cable signals were badly damaged on the Philippi line early on Wednesday morning on which thousands of commuters travel daily. With more than R2 million in damages and thousands of frustrated commuters, Metrorail says it’s dealing with a logistical and financial nightmare . Picture Henk Kruger

Published Aug 1, 2014

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Cobus Coetzee

COMMUTERS on two key Metrorail routes – Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha – will have to bear severe inconvenience until Monday before normal services are restored.

Train services on the two lines had been paralysed after vandals hacked cables between Nyanga and Philippi stations early on Wednesday.

Technicians are working non-stop to repair damage, Metrorail spokeswoman Riana Scott said yesterday.

“In all likelihood the service on the line will only be back to normal on Monday,” she said.

Scott said technicians are working “around the clock” and in two teams to fix the problem.

“It is very intricate work to repair the cable and each little cable has to be tested individually,” she said.

At 2am on Wednesday vandals damaged cables at 25 different places. This left tens of thousands of commuters stranded or delayed as trains could not operate between Nyanga and Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha. Currently trains from Cape Town have to turn back at Nyanga station.

In the Cape Town’s city centre minibus taxis had to transport large numbers of commuters trying to get home last night. Metrorail said yesterday it stopped providing the 55 buses as alternative transport for commuters travelling from Nyanga to Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain.

“The police advised us that it was not safe to continue with the bus service given the threat assessment they did,” Scott said. “Our drivers were threatened.”

She declined to elaborate.

Scott advised commuters to use alternative transport like Golden Arrow buses or minibus taxis over the next few days. Metrorail has requested Golden Arrow to provide 40 more buses between Nyanga, Khayelitsha and Macassar.

Golden Arrow spokeswoman Bronwen Dyke said these buses would be available on the routes after peak hours.

“It will follow the train tracks and stop near where people would have left the trains,” she said.

She said the bus service runs at full capacity during peak hours and there were no extra drivers or buses.

“The buses from Nyanga will run until 9pm – similar to the train service that is currently not running.”

Only commuters’ monthly or weekly tickets are eligible to use the Golden Arrow buses – other have to pay full price.

Golden Arrow is also allowing train commuters with weekly or monthly tickets to use its buses between 8am and 3.30pm and between 6.30pm and 5am until the train service was restored.

“Outside those times they must pay,” she said.

It cost R23.10 to travel from Nyanga to Macassar on a Golden Arrow bus.

Dyke said the buses from Nyanga will run until the last train commuter has left.

Cape Chamber of Commerce president Janine Myburgh said the disruptions were having a serious impact on the local economy. “We have not had report back from businesses but we can just assume a large number of workers were not on time for work this week,” she said.

Cosatu said Metrorail was “punishing commuters for the actions of criminals, which is totally unacceptable”.

Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said: “Poor communities have no other modes of transport to get them to their destinations as the overcrowding of the rest of the system is confirmed by the Golden Arrow operators”.

Metrorail has offered a R50 000 rewardfor information leading to arrests of the vandals.

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