'We pray that we come home alive‚' say train commuters

Every morning Xolani Ntombela’s family prays that he will return home alive.

“It is shocking. You don’t know when this crash will happen and whether you will be involved in it. Every time there is a crash they complain about problems with signals and they promise to fix them‚” Ntombela said.

“A train can stop between stations waiting for the signal to turn green. We sometimes wait for more than hour for the robot to turn green and we are going to work. Inside the train‚ there is no communication system that informs you what the problem is. You just sit there and wait.”

For commuters like Ntombela‚ the dangers of train travel became even more real recently after a horrific train crash in the Free State. At least 19 people died on January 4 when a Shosholoza Meyl train travelling from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg collided with an articulated tipper truck. Less than a week later 200 people were injured in a train collision in Germiston.

“Our families are really worried about our safety but this is the sorrow we have to face every day. My family prays for me every morning‚ hoping that I will come back alive and will not be involved in a train crash‚” Ntombela said.

He said‚ while the train is cheap‚ the service is poor.

“As we are standing here‚ a train from Vereeniging has stopped between Braamfontein and Park Station for a full hour. All the trains that come after the delayed one will be late for the rest of the day‚” Ntombela said.

When TimesLIVE spoke to Ntombela and two other men who take the Metrorail trek almost daily‚ all of them had been waiting for over an hour for a train to take them home after work.

Dumisani Dlamini‚ who takes a train from Vereeniging to Johannesburg‚ explained the ordeal.

“Most of the time‚ the trains are late. Nobody bothers to tell us what the problem is. During the December holidays we were informed that the trains would be running on a different schedule. But as January began trains were a mess. We have monthly tickets and these trains are late‚” he said.

“We still want to know what the reason is for this. The worst route is the one I take‚ which is from Vereeniging to Joburg. We can’t have a full week without a train being terribly late in Vereeniging. In the morning we are forced to leave the train station and go take taxis and yet we have already bought monthly tickets‚” Dlamini explained.

That’s not the only risk facing commuters‚ said Sibusiso Ncanana.

“The people that Prasa has hired to provide safety in trains simply pack Park Station‚ walking up and down the platforms. But inside the trains you will not find security guards or any Prasa personnel. We only see them inside the trains when they are doing inspections for tickets‚” he said.

“There are tsotsis in trains‚ in particular on the route between Johannesburg and Pretoria. That is the one I use. Police do not come inside the trains.”

The lack of security makes for fertile hunting ground for criminals.

“A number of people I know have been robbed inside trains. Criminals just walk in with guns and block all the exits. They then bring a bag‚ asking everybody to put their phone inside as if they are doing a church collection‚” Ncanana said.

“We are only using these trains because they are cheap. If there was a cheaper mode of public transport mode‚ we would leave the trains.”