The Passenger Rail Agency of SA has reinstated the train service in the Mamelodi corridor‚ more than a month after the service was suspended as a result of violence where a female train driver was assaulted‚ stripped naked and dragged into a bush.
On March 13‚ a total of 10 employees were attacked and R6-million worth of damage was caused when six new trains were vandalised and the Eerste Fabrieke station was also damaged extensively.
The following day Prasa decided to indefinitely suspend train services in the Mamelodi corridor‚ leaving thousands of commuters without transport to get to school‚ work and other destinations.
The passenger rail agency said the decision to suspend the service had been taken to protect employees‚ assets and commuters from harm.
The agency’s acting chief executive officer‚ Lindikhaya Zide‚ said they were confident that they would be able to reintroduce the train service starting next week on Saturday.
“We hope that the commuting public and communities will work closely with us to protect these valuable assets‚” he said.
Zide said the assaults of staff‚ vandalism and theft of railway infrastructure had impacted negatively on the reliable train service that they had striven to achieve for their commuters.
He urged commuters to take full ownership of the rail assets.
“We further strongly encourage them to report all forms of crime they witness taking place against passenger rail assets and people to the police or security officials at stations so that perpetrators can be immediately arrested‚” he said.
The reinstatement of the service comes after extensive engagements between the rail agency and various organisations‚ including rail commuter organisations‚ political parties‚ student formations as well as community policing forums.
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