Trains are late and overcrowded

Fee bearing image – Cape Town – 140311 – Minister Dipuo Peters talking to commuters. Transport Minister Dipuo Peters and Metrorail regional manager Mthuthuzeli Swartz took the train to Cape Town with the morning commuters from Kraaifontein Station to see for themselves what the major issues are with the public transport system. Reporter: Jason Felix. Photographer: Armand Hough

Fee bearing image – Cape Town – 140311 – Minister Dipuo Peters talking to commuters. Transport Minister Dipuo Peters and Metrorail regional manager Mthuthuzeli Swartz took the train to Cape Town with the morning commuters from Kraaifontein Station to see for themselves what the major issues are with the public transport system. Reporter: Jason Felix. Photographer: Armand Hough

Published Mar 12, 2014

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Jason Felix

TRANSPORT minister Dipuo Peters boarded a train from Kraaifontein to the city centre early yesterday – and got an earful from commuters.

Commuters aboard the 5.55am train told Peters trains are filthy, always overcrowded and late almost every day.

Peters was joined by her officials, Passenger Rail Agency of SA chairman Lucky Montana and Metrorail Western Cape chairman Mthuthuzeli Swartz.

Alan Cilliers, who boarded the train in Kraaifontein, told Peters: “The trains are chock-a-block full. Every morning we have people crowded in the train. On a Thursday and Tuesday we see that the trains are shorter and that makes it worse.”

Swartz responded: “The train set is shorter because we have to take coaches from other regions in the province. We try our best to have train sets of between 10 and 12 coaches in each region but that is difficult because of vandalism.”

He said trains, tracks, signalling infrastructure and stations were more than 40 years old. “There has been little investment in the rail sector for years, thus we have these problems,” he said.

Swartz said they had requested R230 million to upgrade infrastructure within six months.

Nyanga commuter Bulelwa Wasa labelled Metrorail’s fare increase last year as unnecessary because she felt the service had not improved.

“The prices increase every year but the service never does. The trains are still as dirty as ever, the windows are broken and there are delays every day. It’s been like this for the past five years,” she said.

Wasa said during winter the service “is at its worst”.

“In summer the trains are on time. In winter it’s late every day. It cannot go on like this,” she said.

Peters said the government had given itself 20 years to implement a safe, reliable and dependable transport service.

“We are aiming for an all- encompassing transport experience where we have buses, taxis and trains working together to make it easier for the commuter to plan his or her journey. The integration is possible given time,” she said.

The Transport Department had also requested R51 billion to construct a train manufacturing factory in Johannesburg to maintain new trains.

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