Prasa dismisses Fedusa claims about its fleet renewal programme

The Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) dismissed claims by Fedusa about its multi-billion fleet renewal programme.

"Fedusa's assertion that Prasa is unwilling to engage Transnet Rail Engineering on our rolling stock fleet renewal programme is totally misguided," said Prasa spokesman Moffet Mofokeng in an email.

"Fedusa and its affiliate unions within Prasa are wrong to exaggerate the capacity of Transnet Rail Engineering or any of the industry players to meet our requirements."

Mofokeng said that although Transnet Engineering had an important role to play in the revitalisation of the rail industry, it had been struggling to meet targets with the refurbishment of Prasa's existing fleet.

On Friday, the Federation of Unions of SA said it was shocked that Prasa was not using Transnet Engineering to build new train coaches for the agency's R51 billion renewal programme. Fedusa said Transnet Engineering could find itself with at least 800 redundant employees as a result of the decisions taken by Prasa.

Fedusa's comments come after Prasa chief executive Lucky Montana announced earlier this week that Gibela Rail Transportation (GRT) would partner with a black economic empowerment company to manufacture South Africa's next generation of modern commuter trains.

The GRT consortium is led by French multi-national company Alstom.