Cape Town - Nineteen train carriages were destroyed in an arson attack on Sunday evening – a R60 million blow for Metrorail and frustrating delays for commuters.
A staggering 35 carriages have been damaged in eight arson attacks so far this year, costing more than R100m.
But this attack was the first of its kind as the fire was started while the trains were parked in Metrorail’s Salt River depot, rather than during a protest – forcing the rail parastatal to reconsider its security measures.
Prasa chief Mosenngwa Mofi addressed the media after visiting the site on Monday.
He said that theft, vandalism and arson had cost Prasa R382m over the past three years.
Metrorail provincial head Richard Walker said the depot’s security staff caught a man as he climbed out of a burning train on Sunday, carrying scrap metal.
Charges of malicious damage to property as well as theft have been laid against him, and he will appear in court on Wednesday.
The Sunday evening fire leapt to four train sets, damaging three motor coaches and 16 plain trailers.
Mofi said it was especially sad as a new train set was due to be commissioned on Monday, alleviating system delays. But the upgrade went up in smoke after the four sets were damaged.
Teams working through the night were able to salvage three working sets from the blaze, so service was not too severely hampered for on Monday’s commuters.
“With matric examinations under way many students may have been late with devastating consequences,” Mofi said.
Such incidents would continue to wreak havoc with the train service if the law did not impose harsh consequences for the vandals, he said.
“We cannot accept that these acts are treated as mere vandalism any more.
“We will be opposing bail and asking for a very harsh sentence to act as a deterrent to any other criminal with this action in mind.”
Mofi said it would take from six months to a year for the damaged coaches to be returned to operation, and that the replacement costs were “escalating beyond Prasa’s control”.
The money would be better spent on improving services and upgrading assets.
“We want to apologise to the people of Cape Town, because at the end of the day, it’s the commuters who are affected.”
Transport MEC Donald Grant also condemned the arson.
“The thousands of commuters that rely on public transport daily cannot continue to be held ransom by the actions of a few criminals who have a brazen disregard for the law and the needs of others, particularly during this matric examination period,” Grant said.
Cape Argus