Parliament, Wednesday, 8 September 2021 – The Select Committee on Transport, Public Service and Administration and Public Works and Infrastructure today received a briefing from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) on progress with the refurbishment of railway infrastructure.
Prasa’s strategic outlook and deployment focuses on “positioning of rail as the backbone of public transport” and operating in an integrated transport network, whilst delivering “public value”. This strategic outlook may not be realised due to high levels of vandalism across all the regional Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl services, which have resulted in massive disruption to commuter services.
This mass vandalism and destruction of Prasa infrastructure has resulted in vast sections of infrastructure being closed due to lack of electrical lines. This, together with ongoing modernisation of stations and other related infrastructure has forced Metrorail to severely scale back its services, with some corridors completely closed in various regions. Furthermore, in 2019, Prasa lost R364 million through looting of its infrastructure and burning of trains along 22 000 kilometres of tracks targeted by criminals.
The committee welcomed the progress report giving this scenario and questioned Prasa on the severely impacted Central Line by illegal settlements in the rail reserve in KwaLanga, Philippi and Nonkqubela in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
In 2020, the department reported, that the Minister of Transport was leading a process comprising the National Department of Public Works, the Western Cape Provincial Departments of Human Settlement and Transport, and the City of Cape Town. The committee heard from Prasa that the land does not belong to them. It is therefore in talks with the City of Cape Town to swap a portion of the land it occupies to settle the people and move its depot to accommodate the settlements.
The committee also heard that out of the 24 Prasa corridors, 12 have been opened since 1 July 2020 and nine more would have been opened in October 2020. There is a long- term plan for the wall on the Mabopane line, which has already gone out on tender to find consulting engineers to assist in protecting the line before there is a full rollout of the corridor.
Prasa presented two solutions. The first being a full bus service and the other being a hybrid of a bus and a railway system. However, the committee felt that this solution required deeper engagement with all stakeholders to ensure that there is joint effort to ensure the corridor works. The other solution is opting for a full diesel locomotive over the hybrid options. Although diesel is slightly more expensive than electric lines, it provides safety against thieves and ensures access to public transport. Prasa responded that the diesel option is a far costlier solution to effect.
The committee noted that for successful security plan and refurbishment, the agency must focus on the following: static and train guards, operations monitoring controllers and armed response guards. This will ensure an effective and visible protection service for the agency’s assets, commuters and employees. Further, the agency is likely to see a significant decrease in the vandalism of Prasa’s properties and theft of assets, said the Chairperson of the committee, Mr Kenny Mmoiemang.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC WORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE, MR KENNY MMOIEMANG.
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