Cape Town goes off the rails as arson‚ theft and vandalism takes their toll

19 January 2017 - 18:25 By Aphiwe Deklerk
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Metrorail in Cape Town has lost 30% of its passengers in a year.

Delays and cancellations caused by arson‚ theft and vandalism meant 4.5 million fewer journeys were made last October compared with a year previously.

“The reduction in fleet resulted in a drop in passenger journeys: ie October 2015 15.4 million vs October 2016 10.9 million passenger journeys‚” Metrorail spokesman Riana Scott told The Times.

Meanwhile‚ the City of Cape Town's MyCiTi bus service is cashing in as passengers ditch rail for road.

Revenue last year rose from R16-million in January to R19.4-million in November — a 21% increase.

Mayoral committee member for transport Brett Herron attributed the positive trend to the troubles faced by Metrorail.

“Our data indicates that the income generated by the MyCiTi service increased slightly during the months of May‚ July and August‚” he said.

“This could be as a result of the challenges Metrorail faced at the time and Metrorail passengers opting to make use of the MyCiTi service.”

The number of journeys made on MyCiTi’s fleet of buses rose from 1.5 million in January to 1.7 million in August.

“Despite December being a quiet month‚ given the festive season‚ the total number of passenger journeys recorded on the MyCiTi service increased from 1.4 million in December 2015 to 1.5-million in December 2016‚” said Herron.

It was clear that the number of commuters using MyCitI was growing steadily because “the service is reliable‚ affordable and on time”.

“We are working hard to ensure that we provide a world-class service to all of our commuters‚” he said.

Scott said rail remained the backbone of public transport in the Western Cape‚ and Passenger Rail South Africa had a plan to accelerate its refurbishment programme.

“Prasa’s multi-billion rand modernisation programme is the biggest infrastructural project in rail history‚” she said.

“Its roll-out is already visible in the Western Cape with new stations like Philippi and the construction of the new nerve centre in Bellville.”

TMG Digital/The Times

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