Cape Town - The Railway Safety Regulator’s decision to shut down the only railway station in a small town in the Cape Winelands District is a bittersweet victory.
Gouda is 37km south of Porterville. It is at the western entrance of Nuwekloof Pass between Tulbagh and Wellington, and has a population of 3 441.
Gouda falls under the domain of the Drakenstein municipality, which has a population of 265 029.
It has been a 20-year struggle for the farming town to successfully bring the safety risks at the railway station to the attention of the safety regulator, which officially took stakeholders to task two years ago.
The safety regulator last week announced that the Gouda railway station was shut down because of safety reasons. Some of the reasons listed included holes in the platforms, which were also said to be dangerously low in relation to the train tracks.
The absence of toilet facilities and insufficient lighting in the evening were also cited as problems.
The safety regulator also discovered that the train lengths exceeded the platform length which meant that at least five carriages could not stop along the platform.
Railway Safety Regulator spokeswoman Babalwa Mpendu said: “Commuters are at high risk of getting injured upon boarding or getting off the trains.
“The low level platform is also risky in that there are a significant number of passengers boarding the train which they stand very close to and might be hit by an arriving train – there is no barrier line for them to stand.”
She said that if the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), which was leasing the railway station from Transnet Freight Rail, could not comply with improving the railway station to the safety regulator’s standards, it could be closed down permanently.
“The safety regulator may impose a maximum penalty of R5 million on an operator who fails to comply with a directive. Alternatively, criminal charges may be laid against an operator.” The criminal charges could mean prison time of up to 15 years.
Western Cape MEC of Economic Opportunities Alan Winde said the closure of the Gouda railway station could place increased financial pressure on households in the Witzenberg region as “more residents would be forced to take taxis at a greater cost”.
Having no alternative means of transportation has taken its toll on the community. A visit by the Cape Argus to the town found workers lining up along the R44 road, to hitch rides to Wellington 46km away.
The community is heavily dependent on the agricultural sector for employment. The trains stopping at the station had also brought with it essential goods.
Some workers said that although buses were introduced, they were filled to capacity every day which left others no option but to hitch hike to Wellington to board trains.
Trying to obtain a lift along the stretch of road could take up to four hours, machine operator Isaac Steenkamp said.
“Then I just have to do it again in the evening when I come from work,” he said.
Gouda ward councillor Jerome Mchelm said the unsafe station had resulted in severe injuries at the station in the past.
“A woman jumped from the train and broke her leg,” he said.
Mchelm added that four years ago another woman, with a baby in her arms, had jumped onto the platform from the train. The baby suffered broken ribs and the mother’s legs were fractured in the fall.
Katrina Baartman, 69, also injured her legs while attempting to jump onto the railway platform from a moving train.
Resting on her walking stick, Baartman said: “I no longer travel by train. I hike now.”
However, Prasa spokesman Sipho Sithole said construction of new station platforms and buildings would start in January.
Cape Argus