Yet another train of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) derailed this morning, but this time on the notorious Central Line in Cape Town where train services resumed this morning, after it was suspended for almost two weeks due to safety concerns.
The Central Line resumed normal operation this morning after all stakeholders have been working around the clock over the last two weeks, to reach agreements and to implement drastic measures to ensure the safety of members of the United National Transport Union (UNTU) working on the line and the commuters, after an armed security guard was shot dead on the platform of the Chris Hani Station on 8 January 2018.
He was the fifth worker who had been killed whilst working on the Central Line over the past 18 months. Several commuters have also been murdered while train crew, security officers of PRASA, Police Officials and commuters have been repeatedly brutally attacked and robbed on this line, which UNTU’s General Secretary, Steve Harris, has declared a warzone.
The Central Line was supposed to have resumed its operations yesterday afternoon after PRASA and UNTU reached a collective agreement, to drastically improve the safety of the train crews on the line, late in the hours of the evening on 17 January 2018. Criminals attack the train crews first to force them to come to a complete halt so that they can attack commuters.
A part of the problem is that commuters leave the train doors open, despite a Constitutional Court ruling that all doors must be locked while the train is in motion to ensure their safety, says Harris.
Yesterday afternoon train services could not resume after it was found that three substations have been vandalised and the new signal boxes that were replaced have once again been stolen. Technical teams escorted with armed guards worked until late to repair this.
Early this morning an empty train with a train driver, metro guard and a section manager went out on the route to do a final check before the service resumes this morning. This train derailed just after 04:00 between the Netreg Station and the Heideveld Station. Nobody was injured, but the train has been severely damaged.
Harris says although the Railway Safety Regular (RSR) still needs to investigate the cause of the derailment, all indications are that the derailment was caused by rail clips that have been stolen. The result is that operations on the Central Line have once again been suspended due to the vandalism of infrastructure.
This comes after another PRASA train derailed in Germiston in Gauteng also due to rail clips that were stolen.
“All South African’s needs to stand up against these criminals, ensure that they are caught and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) must oblige to the Criminal Matters Amendment Act and enforce the maximum sentence of 30 years for those convicted.
“Railway lines, irrespective of whether they belong to PRASA or to Transnet, are a national asset and we cannot sit back and allow criminals to steal the cheapest means of transport for the poorest of the poor. PRASA and Transnet are state owned enterprises funded with tax payer money. Their assets belong to you,” says Harris.
On 9 January a third train derailed at the Geldenhuys Station in Germiston after the service had to use manual authorisation due to cable theft. More than 200 commuters were injured.
For more information phone Harris on 082 566 5516.
