Gautrain commuters in the lurch as wage talks halt weekend trains

Gautrain commuters have been left in a lurch this weekend after wage negotiations between the Bombela Operating Company and trade union Numsa stalled.

Gautrain spokesperson Kesagee Nayager, in a statement, urged commuters to find alternative means of transport, saying the service would not operate over the weekend due to the wage impasse. Nayager said there were no contingency plans in place for weekend commuters.

“We regret to advise that further wage negotiations between the Bombela Operating Company and Numsa have unfortunately not resolved the deadlock” said Nayager.

“Some workers affiliated with Numsa remain on strike. Discussions with Numsa resumed yesterday (Thursday, October 8), and continued late this evening with no agreement being reached between the parties. Due to the strike, trains will unfortunately not operate over this weekend (October 10-11) as our contingency plans regrettably cannot currently support weekend operations. We therefore urge passengers to please make alternate transport arrangements for the weekend.”

All  Gautrain could offer for the inconvenience is an apology.

“We know that this will inconvenience some of our passengers and we apologise in advance for this,” said Nayager. “We wish to use this opportunity to thank our staff who have worked exceptionally hard over this past week to keep the service going. We thank them for their dedication and commitment.”

Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said on Saturday: “The strike is continuing.”

TimesLIVE