Train buddies should brace themselves for a lot of delays still
– until the entire rail network has been upgraded.
In August 2017 Metrorail admitted to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament overcrowded, delayed trains is going to be with us for some time still.
“Experience has shown the inadvertent impact of migration to new technologies to have sporadic service failures,” explains Riana Scott, spokesperson for Metrorail.
This all is apparently part of the commissioning and testing
new technology.
The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) started months ago to replace the old systems with new electronic systems.
Work
started on the Southern or suburban line, while work on the Monte Vista line is
done by Transnet.
“The
project is implemented in phases, with the southern line about 65% complete,”
says Scott.
In
October 2017 former transport minister, Joe Maswanganyi, announced that
R9-billion is made available for the upgrade of the rail network in the Western
Cape.
He
also mentioned the first project which is the re-signalling project, that at
the time was in its third year, is a five-year project at a cost of R2-billion.
Scott
was asked what the estimated cost per phase and line is. She however only
responded: “the re-signalling in the Cape Region is estimated at R1.2-billion.”
It also appears as if Metrorail have no idea why their trains are late.
Since
the start of the project there has been a significant increase in not only
delays but also the time you wait on a train and wait in a train between
stations.
According to Scott signal- and/or power failures can be attributed to a range of causes and not only because of the current re-signalling work.
“It
can be from tampering with fibre-optic to problems with migration of technology.
Where migration is incomplete, a fail-safe handover is done from ‘old’ grid to
‘new’ system. This is like manual authorisation, where there is no automated
signalling.
“With
migration of new technology, it also happens that the electronic notice boards are
not aligned to real-time movement of trains and don’t reflect the correct
information. This is currently the case with the electronic boards on Cape Town
station.”
Metrorail
was asked when re-signalling work would commence on the other lines, with the
understanding Northern Line is next. The rail operator was also how many train
stations have functional announcement systems and how many have loud-hailers.
After 4 days, Metrorail still failed to provide such a list or make one public.
Scott
did respond per email that she was in a workshop on Tuesday and would respond
by Wednesday. At the publishing of this there has still been no response.
It’s understood the workshop Scott is referring to was in fact a two-hour meeting with a civil organisation regarding safety on the central line.
A
source who attended the meeting says: “there was a presentation and a lot of
answers, but no progress.”
This was originally published in Afrikaans in Son Koerant on Friday 15 June 2018. Click here for link: Diens lol oor werk
This was originally published in Afrikaans in Son Koerant on Friday 15 June 2018. Click here for link: Diens lol oor werk
