Cape Town - Prasa (The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) bigwigs will convene at Langa station on Thursday to hopefully spell out plans to address the ongoing chaos on Metrorail trains and the continued closing of the central line.
Acting group chief Cromet Molepo, together with the chairperson and rest of the Prasa board, will hold a media briefing at the central line on the issue.
This as commuters share their frustrations over the chaos because of the delays.
Metrorail regional manager Richard Walker said commuters can expect the average trip from Muldersvlei to Cape Town to last 90 minutes and a trip from Kraaifontein to Cape Town to last 60 minutes. The time between Simon’s Town and Cape Town is estimated at 70 minutes and a trip between Bellville and Cape Town can take 45 minutes.
Commuters travelling from Retreat to Cape Town can prepare for a 40-minute trip, while a trip on the Lavistown route from Bellville to Cape Town is 45 minutes.
Luyanda Qoyi commented on Facebook, saying: "These are normal train running times the way I know it. It’s always been 90 minutes from Wellington to Cape Town and so are the other lines."
Mandy-Lynn Mott said: "Drop expectations? How much more does one have to 'drop'? Let’s talk about how Prasa/Metrorail has dropped the ball, dropped its standards, and now dropped us."
Samantha Lètavia Schippers said: “We pay for a monthly but don't get proper service and we are always late. Why not just shut the whole service down for 3 months or so and fix everything. That would be better than most of us buying weekly or monthly tickets and not getting what we pay for.”
Public relations manager for Golden Arrow bus service, Bronwen Dyke-Beyer, said Metrorail has an arrangement with the bus service to service commuters in times of crisis, but there are practical limitations to Golden Arrow being able to service the additional number of commuters.
“There are more than 1000 Golden Arrow buses operating during peak every day that are already operating at full capacity under normal conditions. We therefore only have capacity during the off-peak period.
“Metrorail passengers with valid weekly and monthly cards have therefore been able to travel on affected routes free of charge during off-peak hour. Where necessary we will, however, make additional buses available during the off-peak period to ensure all passengers are cleared,” said Dyke-Beyer.
Cosatu’s Tony Ehrenreich has now called for urgent action to be taken against the closing of the Metrorail central line, saying it's unacceptable and a huge inconvenience for the commuters who have bought tickets to have the line out of commission.
“The continuous delays and breakdowns are leading to workers' jobs being threatened. The lack of security on the trains has led to the death and injury of both staff and commuters in the system
"The Metro rail now adds insult to injury by making an arrangement where the ticket holders can use Golden Arrow buses, but only after 8.30 in the morning,” said Ehrenreich.
He said Cosatu has agreed to assist in resolving the problems in the system, but said that a lack of co-operation across different modes of transport is leading to workers being prejudiced.