Prasa on track to reopen parts of Central Line

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is expecting to fulfil its commitment of reopening a section of the Central Line corridor. Picture: Henk Kruger African News Agency (ANA)

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is expecting to fulfil its commitment of reopening a section of the Central Line corridor. Picture: Henk Kruger African News Agency (ANA)

Published Jul 25, 2022

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Cape Town - The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is expecting to fulfil its commitment of reopening a section of the Central Line corridor on Tuesday.

The rail agency was preparing final work on Monday, ahead of resuming operations between Cape Town to Langa via Pinelands, and Langa to Bellville via Sarepta.

This comes a month after the rail agency's management briefed Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) about recovering in “priority corridors”.

They set the end of July as their deadline for the resumption of the lines.

Prasa’s spokesperson Andiswa Makanda explained that on Tuesday they will start trial operations to determine and fix any problems with the train service, “but the trains are safe to operate.”

The Central Line was closed in 2019 due to theft and vandalism and was further hampered by illegal occupations on the rail network.

“The resumption of the service on the lines is a major milestone for Prasa given the difficulties experienced with the relocation of households on the rail reserve and criminal syndicates’ constant attacks on security personnel. Certain sections of the Central Line were volatile, posing a threat to our staff and contractors,” said Makanda.

She said while the Housing Development Agency (HDA) was finalising the relocation process, Prasa had cordoned off the informal settlements for the safe running of trains ahead of schedule.

“To resume this service, Prasa had to rebuild the infrastructure from the ground up. This also includes the rehabilitation of five vandalised sub-stations that power the rail network.”

Cape Times