Cape Town Trains is Metrorail's eToll

It is no secret that trains into and out of Cape Town has been delayed so much, one don’t even get frustrated no more.
What gets to me is that even though Mthuthuzeli Swartz, Regional Manager, say the frustrations are valid and he understand it – I fail to believe he truly understand.
You can only understand the frustration of a commuter if you:
• Have been waiting for two hours on a station, some in the rain and others in a train.
• Arrive late at work and you have to please explain to your manager who will probably believe you once or twice but by the fourth time, you will be signing your warning. 
• Arrive home two/three hours after you were suppose to and you had to arrange with someone to pick up your kids because trains are delayed and now you have to go cook.
• Don’t get to spend time with your family cause you got home late and you so tired you just want to wash and sleep. 
See RM that is why I doubt that you understand commuter frustrations.
The other thing that upset me is that since the whole delay due to infrastructure started, not once did senior management of Metrorail and Prasa take a train in peak time to truly feel what commuters have to endure, instead they say they have compassion and understand commuter frustrations. 

What I think of Metrorail's Interventions
Swartz on Tuesday March 25th, 2014 announced safety critical interventions to stabilise rail service. First thing I noticed is that the announcement contained no time-frames and deadlines, Swartz said it would be implemented over the next four months.
Metrorail’s immediate actions include of track circuits and use of suitable technology, as well as the overhaul of track transformers.
The building of another closer-by station for those in the Wallacedene area in Kraaifontein has been added to the planning and a few stations will be completely upgraded.
I agree with Swartz that the root of this problem goes back to the 1980’s, as well as a policy of disinvestment – but was none of the managers bold enough to say 30 or 20 years ago this is our problem and needs to be addressed soon.
The actual good news was when Swartz said that a second train to Worcester is being negotiated. Commuters making use of this line have been asking this for a long time now and I share in their joy. The other good news was that plans are also afoot to use spare Shosholoza Meyl trains to alleviate capacity constrains. Now someone who understands commuter frustration would know, this is what commuters want to hear.
Metrorail’s sms system will also be resuscitated. Now the service had a slow death because it was useless, wait that is to harsh – it was not effective. Who says it will be now as @CapeTownTrains on Twitter only update every 20 to 30 minutes and a reply from them is not efficient. Commuters are encouraged to use the GoMetro mobi-site. I use the site and it can be good, if it is updated more regularly. There are days that delays don’t even feature.
I've told the RM before, he has good communication resources – it is just not use effective.
And why have a Twitter account if it signs off at 19:00, and trains are delayed. If you serious about making communication better, have a better communication policy with extended hours.
Read: Critical interventions

This is reckless commuter behaviour and can only be addressed by collaborative effort between us and the police was Swartz response to the image.

What is my point? 
• Metrorail didn't get a Christmas card telling them that we have old infrastructure, etc. so why did Metrorail WC wait until a train derailed and damaged tracks leading to the closure of platforms at Cape Town?
• Why can no one take responsibility? 
• Why did Prasa wait (on the minister to listen to commuters) before more than R233million was made available for urgent intervention?
• Is it safe to say a certain manager did not do his/her work to report that tracks need urgent upgrades?
• Why can’t Metrorail/Prasa admit that they have failed to deliver an effective reliable rail service to commuters?
If you admit that you have failed then you can make a promise to better, but now you make more promises and commuters, well doubt if you can deliver on them.
Scary part of this whole fiasco is that ticket prices will increase, as soon as the four months is over.
The annual ticket price increase with no improvement in the service is probably the eTolls of those using Cape Town trains. 
Because we pay for
• delayed service, 
• losing quality time with our families, 
• Signing warnings at work and 
• Metrorail and Prasa management to enjoy increases.

Prasa and Metrorail’s management should do the honourable thing and reject a pay hike until an effective and reliable rail service can be offered and to compensate commuters (for having to deal with this 40 year old issue that no one wants to take ownership of). Why can’t those with lets say March monthlies not buy new ones and use them in April – this is one of those dreams of mine that I should just give up on.

The past week, Western Cape Transport and Public Works minister, Robin Carlisle says Metrorail is a disaster waiting to happen – I disagree with the honourable MEC and should show him this piece to inform him that the disaster already happened and I pray it’s not to late to change course or even driver.
Metrorail a disaster waiting to happen

Oh I’m Earl just an ordinary commuter 

Metrorail now Metrofail

Thousands stranded as trains are delayed due to infrastructure problems

Cape Town is the World Design Capital for 2014 and host of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but two days after the annual Cape Town carnival, hundreds were stranded and frustrated on platforms as trains were delayed by more than an hour.

Monday 17 March 2014 is why many commuters call Metrorail, Metrofail.

The delay is due to a train that derailed on Saturday evening, leaving staff with a headache to fix. The chaos comes a week after Transport minister, Dipuo Peters took a train journey to engage with commuters and they shared their frustration of train delays with her.

Monday is probably a day Metrorail staff and commuters would not like to see be repeated, reality is that with our old infrastructure and stock, we will probably see much more delays before the new trains arrive, next year.

Metrorail was unable to effectively communicate with commuters. Their GoMetro service as well as website only stated “Trains are delayed due to Infrastructure problems at Cape Town”, this was also tweeted by @CapeTownTrains. This might be okay if trains were delay for say 10 minutes, but more than an hour - a time frame should have been added from the start.

Two hours after asking Metrorail to add by how many minutes trains are delayed, they eventually tweeted “trains are delayed by 60+minutes”.

I don’t really know what made matters worse, when Regional Manager, Mthuthuzeli Swartz tweeted “our woes have been made worse by the contractor at CT station who damaged signalling equipment” or the fact that no ticket verifier were on duty. Or wait the fact that no-one from senior management engaged with commuters on the platforms.

So what is my beef with Metrorail, well I don’t have any, I am like the many ordinary commuters, who took our frustration to social media and @CapeTownTrains will most probably ignore those tweets and service won’t be any better. 

Some of the tweets that caught my eye were:

• “Metrofail!!..Metrofail!!..need I say more, no freakin back up plan.”
• “Wow…#Metrofail was str8 from hell 2day…”
• “once again #metrofail. What a way to start my week…”
• “get to the station as fast as I can, to find out no trains”

The harsh reality is that Metrorail only “apologize for the inconvenience” and come June/July ticket prices will increase and thousands like me who depend on the rail service, will just have to fork out the extra rand.

We can’t say we paying for a better service or better trains as trains are vandalize and the service is, well the service is delayed. Except when a minister is on board, then it seems like a world class railway service.

So what should be done?

Commuters can start by putting pressure on Metrorail and not just accept the “sorry for the inconvenience”. Commuters can also start by being more informed, like using the GoMetro-app.

And Metrorail, well they can start by implementing better, more proactive communication channels – one of them being all ground staff being well informed of what is going on and what is being done. The second thing Metrorail should start focusing on is contingency plans, as this lack and is in many cases only in action after someone made someone somewhere aware of an issue.

Fact is things won’t change overnight and no one will win, but the commuter is the client and the client is always right.