It will take approximately five to eight years for the new fleet of trains to be rolled out by Metrorail‚ which seeks to take back its commuter market share which has been declining. Acting Passenger Rail Agency of SA CEO Collins Letsoalo said there were service deficiencies in the system as trains were bought in the early 1980s and were no longer reliable.Metrorail passenger trips per annum had reduced from 500 million trips in 2014/2015 to just over 400 million trips in 2015/2016.“The kind of assets we have make it difficult to provide a service that we like. Government has given us R72bn to fix this. Unfortunately‚ we don’t have 20 years. Our rail tracks are also old. Our overhead infrastructure is also very old.”Prasa awarded a contract with Gibela consortium to deliver 600 Alstom trains consisting of six coaches each for Metrorail's fleet renewal programme.Letsoalo said the commuter rail passenger system was initially built for a very few.“As numbers of passengers increase‚ the system is buckling under pressure.”“You go to a station and arrive there. The train is late. It looks dirty. The stations are dark and our people are not safe and the service that we give to our people is not the kind of service we intended.”Letsoalo said Prasa will release its turnaround plan at the end of October which will focus on improving the reliability of the service and infrastructure.“Our fare revenue has reduced. We deal with (the) issue of fare evasion and ensure we enclose our network.”..