Passenger trains grind to a halt

SA's mainline passenger trains have finally hit the buffers. On Thursday, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) cancelled all Shosholoza Meyl long-distance passenger trains, pending a "review" of the service, leaving thousands of passengers with pre-booked tickets out in the cold.

The only train that will run in the next two weeks is this weekend's Premier Classe service from Johannesburg to Durban and back. All other Premier Classe trains, a semi-luxury service popular with tourists, have been halted.

"The review calls for a total suspension of services," said Prasa spokesman Lillian Mofokeng. Until last Thursday, passenger trains operated regularly between Johannesburg and the country's main centres, as well as between Cape Town and Durban and East London. Metrorail commuter train services - which also fall under Prasa - are not affected.

Mofokeng said this did not mean the demise of the country's passenger trains. "It is just a temporary thing," she said.

Prasa will spend the next two weeks evaluating its passenger rail corridors to determine which of its routes are viable. Revenues have fallen far short of operating costs, and passenger trains are bedevilled by unreliable locomotives.

Prasa also pays Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) to run its trains on TFR tracks.

Shosholoza Meyl's troubles have been brewing for years. The mainline coach fleet is old and the passenger trains have had to make do with ailing electric units handed down from Shosholoza Meyl's former parent.

The rot goes back two decades when SA Transport Services, the successor to the old SA Railways, stopped investing in its passenger trains.

"They didn't spend a cent," said Rollo Dickson, editor of rail trade journal Railways Africa. "The crux of it is that when you get any backlog, it takes a long time to recover."

Successive managers of the passenger division have failed to address the problem, other than to cut schedules and routes.