Monorail mooted for Cape Town as city targets train takeover

Monorail‚ light rail and even urban cable cars might be on the cards for the Mother City.

They are all part of an ambitious plan by the city council‚ which includes taking over the running of rail infrastructure in the Cape.

The mayoral committee member for transport and urban development‚ Brett Herron‚ said on Tuesday that commuter rail services in Cape Town were on the brink of collapse‚ and the council could not wait for the government to hand them over by around 2030‚ as suggested in a white paper.

“The department of transport is proposing assignment once the full modernisation programme of [the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa] has been implemented. In our view‚ waiting for the full implementation ... will be too long and too late‚” said Herron.

Part of the city’s planned takeover might lead to the introduction of the “alternative rail” solutions‚ he said‚ supporting a claim last month by Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD that Cape Town was a “hot prospect” to get its Skyrail monorail system.

The City of Cape Town announced late last year that BYD was setting up an electric bus manufacturing plant in the Mother City‚ and The Times reported that it would also manufacture products such as mass-transit monorail systems and solar panels.

Herron confirmed there had been informal unsolicited bids for alternative rail solutions but declined to name the companies involved‚ saying they were both local and international.

The city council wants to take over railway lines‚ stations‚ ticketing centres and signalling and invite operating companies‚ including Metrorail‚ to bid for the right to run trains on different routes. Herron said the system would operate similarly to the MyCiTi bus rapid transit operation.

“The takeover must happen gradually so that the city can plan ahead‚ acquire the necessary skills‚ and develop the additional capacity to ensure the long-term sustainability of passenger rail‚” he said.

The project was akin to a business rescue. “I want to be frank about the reality that it will take us years to repair the damage done to passenger rail over the past three decades. Setbacks should be expected‚” he added.

The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry said it shared Herron’s concern that the suburban rail system was close to collapse.

“The first thing to do is prevent the destruction of the infrastructure and more train sets. The city with its Copperheads‚ metro police and even its investigation unit should be in a position to offer immediate assistance‚” said chamber president Janine Myburgh.

“Metrorail should welcome this support. The city would not be involved in the actual running of the service but it would be a good starting point for a more constructive relationship between the city and Metrorail.

She said the big problems were metal theft‚ vandalism and arson. “At this stage we should focus on helping and supporting Metrorail and leave the grandiose plans for monorails for another day‚” she said.

The ANC transport spokesman in the city council‚ Bheki Hadebe‚ said changing ownership without fixing the problems would not do the city any good.

“We don’t think the challenge is with the ownership or the management‚ there are bigger challenges other than management. What the city seeks to suggest‚ it’s as if they can do a better job than the current ownership ... which is not the case‚” he said.

Marianne Vanderschuren‚ associate professor in transport studies at the University of Cape Town‚ said the Metrorail system suffered from ageing infrastructure and rolling stock coupled with violence‚ all of which jeopardised services.

“Cable cars are very energy efficient. So why not add them to the mix?” she said.

“Light rail functions well in various cities. We could explore the benefits using this in Cape Town. Autonomous cars are expected in the not-so-distant future. Maybe some of the infrastructure can be allocated to those systems.”