Some long distance trains still not operating

Is it not a shame that PRASA and Transnet has not resolved their dispute as I reported here, and yet the same department responsible for one of the entity wants to introduce a fast train between Durban and Johannesburg. No wonder some people are against the Durban - Johannesburg project.

A blame game while Customers get stranded - PRASA and Transnet.

If you have a family member who relies on Shosholoza Meyl long distance trains, you will be saddened to hear that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) has cancelled Shosholoza's services for at least two weeks in order to evaluate its passenger rail corridors to determine which of its routes are viable. The company says that revenues have fallen far short of operating costs, and passenger trains are bedevilled by unreliable locomotives (The Times Live, 14 August 2010).

But the reasons given below where not be the real reason behind the suspension of the services which thousands of people rely on. The real reasons, according to Unions United Transport and Allied Trade Unions (Utatu) was because of a disagreement about train maintenance with Transnet (The Times Live, 14 August 2010). Transnet owns the tracks in which PRASA operates its trains and also maintains PRASA's trains. Ironically, PRASA bought Shosholoza Meyl for R100 from Transnet. PRASA, on its media statement confirmed this dispute which you can read here, though Transnet denies that the withdrawals of train services is related to the maintenance contract.

Even though PRASA assured passengers that they will provide buses to ferry passengers who have paid for their tickets or refund them, I find it hard to believe that they will do this efficiently and not all passengers will receive this information on time which will leave them stranded. This is disturbing, considering that billions of Rands have been wasted on Gautrain while other passenger rail services (e.g. Metrorail) are falling into disarray, despite the latter carrying far more people than the former.

Whether the discussions that are taking place today between PRASA and Transnet are going to bare any fruits remains to be seen, but with both companies belonging to the government departments, it is clear that a political solution is going to be reached. Therefore a long term solution is needed and fast tracking the development of a Rail Policy/Act which will ultimately lead to the setting up of a Rail Economic Regulator. One of the toughest questions that the rail policy needs to answer are as follows;

• Whether it is in the economy's best interest for Transnet to own rail tracks while at the same time operating the business of moving freight;
• To whom will the Gautrain belong to once the PPP agreement with Bombela comes to an end;
• Are PPP rail projects in the future the way to go and if so which passenger agency will be responsible for them (PRASA or Provinces?);and
• The future of rail gauge.

Once this is answered, perhaps we can see a lasting solution that is to the beneficial to the economy. South Africa can not afford the situation that is happening between Transnet and PRASA.

From Hellopeter

Ever since I started receiving google alerts about Transport Companies, I have started receiving alerts(about the two companies) from a source I never received...Hellopeter. Hellopeter lets customers to lodge a complaint on a public forum and offers companies to respond to your responses.

Many of you know the site and you may also be aware that not all comments that are sent there are validated. So, it would be wise not to believe everything you read that falls under Hello Peter. Below are some of the comments I got from Hellopeter. Most of the commentators are complaining about Metrorail's poor service which I have talked about here and have experienced first hand.

Complaint 1 - Delayed or cancelled trains- 15:29 Tue 3 Aug

For the past 2 months I have been late at work for about 11 times because of the trains from kuilsriver (Eerste River, Muldersvlei) either running late or cancelled. This has put my job at stake and the letters are that we get from metrorail are no longer valid at work because it seems as if it's a lie. Ever since metrorail increased the ticket prices, the service became worse off and if this keeps on continuing many people will get warnings from their employers and get dismissed for metrorails inability to deliver services to the public as they promise.

This is a serious issue and it needs to be looked at. I tried to take earlier trains but same thing occurs. Like, today the train stood for several times between Kuilsriver and bellville for almost 20 minutes. I took the train from 06h42 only to get to cape Town station after 07h50. Week in week out there's always issues with metrorail trains and if this is not condemed by the people and the management, many South African will lose their jobs.

Complaint 2 - BAD SERVICE - 13:36 Wed 14 Jul

dont know why i even put this on here they dont even care anyway, but they must give the worst service in south africa, why must 1st class ticket buyers pay more then 3rd class when they travel the same way? no difference, the trains is always full during peak times, people hanging out of the trains... people getting fired from word cause they always late...

how can u run such a business??? who ever is setting the schedules must be a monkey im telling you... even with no brains...

but what can the customers do to get attention? nothing... they dont care as long as they get paid...

Cape metrorail for no1 worst customer service in SA

Complaint 3 - Metro Rail - 15:19 Wed 30 Jun

Metrorail make us late at work due to the trains that are late.I'm using the train everyday from Wynberg to Cape town.Today I was at the station 7:15am aiming the catch the train for 7:20 I stayed there till 7:45 ,the only thing you could here the train so and so is delaying sorry for inconvience that's all.Secondly I used to pay R128.00 now I'm paying R192.00 monthly hoping to get a better service but now it's worse because you find people from third class in the first class coach and that person is having a seat and the person who paid for first class has no seat NOT FARE AT ALL.I asked the guys from metrorail what is going to be new now that there is an increase in the ticket the response from them was there will be securities,access controllers,BUT NOTHING NOT EVEN ONE PERSON.

And a happy customer who was a World Cup spectator

Complaint 4 -ehh I meant Complement - Great Service - 10:27 Wed 23 Jun

We went to Moses Mabhida stadium last night to watch Korea vs Nigeria.

We decided to take the Metrorail train.

Wow but were we blown away. The train was on time. It was CLEAN. There were 9 police officers on board and a very presentable gentleman came through and explained the shuttle system and informed us on the times and platforms of our return train.

Welldone Metrorail. This system works!! I just hope they keep it for Rugby mtaches and Concerts in future!

Complaint 5 - Delayed trains - CONSTANTLY- 11:23 Mon 14 Jun

I am a train commuter, I travel by train from Kuilsriver to Bellville everyday Mon-Frid, I take trains from Stellenbosch or Muldersvlei to Cape Town but I get off in Bellville. I have a monthly ticket. Last week Thursday I wrote a report complaining about the new train times and THERE WAS NO FEEDBACK to date. I was late the whole of last week, I stood at the station from 07h15 until 08h00, there was only one train that came from the time I was standing there and the train was full to no decimal point. I'm afraid the same thing happened this morning, the SAD or BAD thing is the fact that it was pouring with rain. This morning I was standing at the station from 07h05 until 08h00, again there was one train that came from that time (07h27) which was fullpacked and I was forced to take the next one that arrived at 08h00 and I was LATE AGAIN. I refuse to take a taxi being a monthly ticket holder.... These times are not accommodating us as commuters (once again) And Metrorail doesn't care...judging by their reaction or should I say no reaction at all. This is pathetic.....will this continue until the end of the world cup..... ?????

Customer complaining about the Business Express which was introduced in 2008 to attract car commuters between Soweto/Joburg and Joburg/Pretoria. It seems now their service is detoriating as well.

Complaint 6 - Where`s GAUTRAIN ??? - 15:39 Tue 4 May

After 2 years of being a loyal custumer of the Twane Business Express I have never experienced this LOW level of service we are currently have to suffer.
After having to expain to my boss day after day why a am again one hour late for work I must suffer the trip back home without my newspaper and without the promised cup of coffe or hot choclate and having to deal with unfriendly and rude hosts and hostesses - I never would have thought it would come to this SHUBBY service - Once upon a time I was proud to say ' I Travel in Style on the TBE.............'

SLEEP TIGHT BRAVE SOLDIERS - THE GAUTRAIN IS COMMING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Complaint 7 - bad attitude & insult - 17:07 Mon 12 Apr

I would like to log a formal complaint about the incident that happened on Saturday the 10th, April 2010 at about 18:15 in the evening.I was on my way to board the 18:23 train to Eester River when the incident happened.On the 3rd class section I was going in the platforms and since the guys where onstrike I took for granted that there is no one then I walked through. One of theofficials used a sign language that I could not understand and you could tell she is waiting for someone to tell her s***t by the look in her face and I asked 'what is that?', only after I asked then she told me I must show my ticket.

I told her that she should have told me not in that way because I see that as a lack of respect and bad customer service and that's not the way I must be treated. I deserve to be treated with respect and dignity no matter who the hell am I according to her. By the time I was asking what was she doing my fingers were pointing at her, when I was done she then did the same insulting me and I asked her nicely not to point fingers at me then I lashed her hand. After that she hit me at the back and insult me in a way that I never thought a lady could do that to me

And this one says it all.

Complaint 8 - TRAINS ARE LATE OR BROKEN ALWAYS - WHY? - 09:20 Sat 13 Feb

I have been travelling with the train for 20 years,before it was Metrorail,former South African Railways and since new take over,there is always breakages and late arrival of the trains exspecially Atteridgeville-Saulsville Corridor.January and February months were the worst with breakages and late arrivals exspecially the peak hour trains.I have trie on numeruos occassions to e mail Sipho Ngomane,the Metrororai spokesman,but have never bothered to respond.I have also informed him before time that this company will be bankrupt soon,and few weeks after that,they were on headlines--Running short of finance.Most goverment parastatals companies like this - Their Service Stinks.Metrorail is the Worst.Please get the system that runs properly with the right people who know what ther are doing,then we will buy our tickets with smiles!

Please note that Metrorail did not respond to any of these complaints/comments

Ahhh, Sean Muller could not have said it better when he argues recently on the Business Day that Gautrain discourages social integration between the haves and the haves not. Related post written by me is found here

SEÁN MULLER: Rapid rail links bypass the real issues

THE flirtation with high- speed rail is a symptom of the government’s preference for trying to solve simple but fundamental socioeconomic problems with high-profile, over-hyped projects

THE flirtation with high- speed rail is a symptom of the government’s preference for trying to solve simple but fundamental socioeconomic problems with high-profile, over-hyped projects that bypass — in the Gautrain’s case, geographically as well as metaphorically — the real issues.

When the Gautrain was proposed, the (now inflated) cost was in the vicinity of R8bn-R15bn, with projections of about 100000 passengers a day. Contrast this with the R1bn that was allocated annually to the entire Metrorail system at the time, which is already carrying more than 2-million commuters daily. What is the argument for value per passenger here, never mind the overall socioeconomic impact? Despite efforts to put a glossy sheen on projects such as the Gautrain and the World Cup, their socioeconomic benefits remain questionable.

The primary existing problems with passenger rail include security, reliability, capacity, accessibility and quality (of infrastructure and service). These are serious problems for existing commuters, and are the main barriers to attracting wealthier passengers out of their motor vehicles.

The historical lack of appetite to tackle these problems is obvious: for example, on the security front it took a court ruling to force the government to put barely adequate security back on the trains, although we could employ about 50000 additional security guards for a comparatively small R1,8bn over 10 years to achieve this.

Improving capacity requires investing in new, as well as replacing existing, rolling stock. This must involve expanding local maintenance and manufacturing capacity, which in turn requires long-term commitment to timetables of repair and replacement. Accessibility requires better integration with, and improvement of, feeder systems such as buses and taxis, and may also include increased secure parking for wealthier passengers or the extension and improvement of feeder routes into wealthier areas.

Improving the reliability and quality of the service necessitates a whole host of measures, including investment in personnel training, upgrading aspects of the basic infrastructure (switching, for instance) and improvements at stations.

Notice that the issue of speed is nowhere on this shopping list of improvements. Yes, faster trains would somewhat ease capacity issues and reduce people’s overall time commuting, but these benefits are insignificant relative to the scale of the existing failures. Further , we have not even touched on the failures relating to social integration — these are compounded by Gautrain-style projects.

To its credit, the newly constituted Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) has shown signs that it understands the nature of the challenges and measures required to fix them. Yet President Jacob Zuma and Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele have said the government is investigating a national high-speed rail network, starting with a commuter link between Durban and Johannesburg. The motivation comes from China’s plan for a high-speed network, but there are a host of differences between our countries that make such analogies embarrassing.

China has a huge population and higher population density, the scale and industrial capacity to develop its own high-speed rail industry, an expanding rail network and an economy that is already moving like a high-speed train. By contrast, SA has a relatively small, dispersed population; in rail and other areas we have almost been de-industrialising; the rail network we have has been rapidly rolled back over recent decades, with many lines now going literally to seed; and the economy is growing sluggishly.

There is no honest and convincing argument for any high-speed rail in this country, nor will there be for at least a few decades.

Nevertheless, it seems that the government wants to spend vast sums of money for costly private-sector competence, import foreign equipment and expertise we will never bother to produce ourselves, and spin the supposed benefits of fundamentally elitist projects, rather than make the effort to get competent government structures and intermediate industries in place that will be capable of tackling the real problems.

- Muller lectures economics at the University of Cape Town.

And here is a comment from one of the reader, Ntja;

The Gautrain is a good attempt at addressing Gauteng’s unique public transport needs. Due to Gauteng’s urban sprawl speed is a consideration in “shrinking” the distances between the Gauteng’s stops and encouraging the upper classes from out of their cars. The Gautrain should also help address some of this sprawl by encouraging densification in areas adjacent to stations. I actually think that the Gautrain represents an opportunity to improve on South Africa’s current social integration landscape where the upper classes keep themselves cocooned in their cars from their remote access garage doors to the boomed off parking at work. Even if one considered the Gautrain’s ridership to be entirely privileged there will be more opportunities for social integration at nodes where the Gautrain interacts with other modes of transport (metrorail, rea vaya), in public places and pavements as all classes complete the last section of their daily commute on foot.

Currently upper middle class South Africa doesn’t use public transport at all. I think it is unfair to suggest that government has totally ignored the latent potential in metrorail to provide a more efficient and effective commuter rail service. Government has been late in acting on this but since the formation of prasa in 2009 R25bn has been allocated to rail improvement projects over 3 years, incidentally a figure similar to the Gautrain’s price tag. Much of the current state of rail in South Africa is due to a legacy of bad planning and management as you rightly point out. I agree with all your points in trying to improve on this situation. There are also the technical limitations of cape guage track, the betamax of rail technology. I will resist a technical diatribe. Almost all of South Africas existing rail network is built on this standard. This standard is slower, has les payload and it is more expensive and difficult to service and acquiring rolling stock for as it only used in 17% of the world’s railways. If you’re going to build a new rail link; it has to be on standard gauge for sustainability considerations ( the Gautrain runs on standard gauge).

It has been estimated that it would cost South Africa R800bn to upgrade the existing rail infrastructure to standard gauge. It is time someone made some really hard decisions as persisting with standard gauge infrastructure is likely to cost even more with each passing year. It is time to set in motion an incremental upgrade of our railway infrastructure. This brings me also to the mooted high speed link between Durban and Johannesburg. This may be inspired by commuter rail links in China but in statements coming out of prasa and government it is quite obvious that no one is naively talking about a country wide high speed commuter rail link with links between Kroonstad and Welkom, for example.

Durban and Johannesburg are two of our countries most populous cities. There is high daily road based traffic between the two cities. In a statement on the pre feasibility study on the link Lucky Montana of prasa stated that the link would only be viable as a combined commuter and freight link. This makes sense especially when considering plans to increase capacity at Durban’s harbour. Speed would also help in improving competitiveness. Government and prasa should, in fact, be commended for showing foresight; an element which has been missing in management of South Africas rail infrastructure. To say that there will be no convincing argument for highspeed rail in this country for several decades grossly simplifies things. It is easy to dismiss the Gautrain project as a a vanity project for the rich when it is viewed in isolation. When you look at the Gautrain as a fast and efficient link between Gauteng’s hubs of economic activity ,a counter to congestion hotspots and the backbone of a broader more integrated public transport solution its easy to see its value and accessibility to all sectors of the public.

As early as next year, for example, a resident of Soweto travelling to Tshwane in the morning will be able to do so by taking the Rea Vaya bus to Braamfontein and connecting to the Gautrain to complete the journey. I already know someone who lives in Thembisa and travels to Sandton by connecting via the Rhodesfield station. Justifying the cost of anything is a common subject in the south African debate. People are never going to agree on the price point for any intervention and several “real issues” are always cited as places where funds could be better spent. The reality is that we are inefficient in spending money in many of these “real” problems and also we shouldn’t neglect other arrears of improving our economic and social landscape. The ability to integrate the Gautrain with other forms of public transport is how the service will ultimately fail or help the broader public.

There are signs that the Gauteng government recognises this. Its too early to pass that judgement. My fear is that, when phase 2 of the Gautrain is complete it will be oversubscribed. People underestimate the sheer horror of the Tshwane/Midrand/ Joburg commute. Already the initial number coming from mbombela for phase one are several times more than the initial estimates.