Cape Town – The Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) engineering research chair, a research group in the department of industrial engineering at Stellenbosch University, said vandalism and theft of railway assets was a major cause of disruption to the rail network.
The group has begun researching solutions to railway and related engineering problems that could help Prasa combat such challenges.
With the need for public transport increasing with population growth, any disruptions prevent the rail network from being able to meet the growing demand.
The group said Prasa approached its department in 2009 for assistance. As the problems were then considered more complex, Professor Neels Fourie with Prasa and Metrorail conceptualised the research chair group.
Fourie said that, in 2018, data analysis was conducted on the incidences of vandalism and theft of the Western Cape rail network’s rolling stock and infrastructure assets.
“The analysis showed a distinct increase in incidents between 2013 and 2014, a decrease from 2014 to 2015, and a significant increase again towards 2017. Hotspot locations for the vandalising and theft of rolling stock assets were found to be in Paarden Eiland, Salt River and Cape Town, and infrastructure assets were found to be most at risk in Bonteheuwel, Lavistown and Nyanga,” he said.
In the case of rolling stock and infrastructure assets, Fourie said the components most affected were copper cables. The data enabled a cause-and-effect analysis.
“Most vandalism incidents were found to be cases of theft, driven by the illegal business opportunities that stem from the high value of copper and the accessibility of the rail network,” Fourie said.
Possible solutions to prevent such incidents include encasing the copper cables in glass-fibre-reinforced plastic pipes placed inside concrete troughs, he added, as well as anti-theft trigger alarms and CCTV and/or drones at access points, the overall improvement of perimeter protection, changing the company culture, and introducing fire-retardant materials.
United Commuters Voice (UCV) spokesperson Joao Jardim said it would take "bundles of cash and a committed security ensemble" to tackle the scourge of railway vandalism.
“It is out of control and will only get worse if syndicates are left to their own devices,” he said.
He said UCV has appealed to the City as well as provincial and national role-players to urgently introduce a scrap by-law.
City Transport portfolio committee chairperson Angus McKenzie said vandals had moved on from stealing underground cables to overhead cables, train tracks and overhead pylons.
Prasa spokesperson Makhosini Mgitywa called on the public to help preserve the country’s railway infrastructure by reporting any and all incidents of sabotage against its infrastructure.
Cape Argus