Torching of trains remains a mystery

ONLY 37 of 88 trainsets currently transport about half a million commuters in the Western Cape.

This means there are now more trains out of order, than trains moving on the tracks.

Many were damaged the past three years in train fire incidents.

Metrorail has since October 2015 in nearly 30 separate incidents lost a shocking 146 train coaches.

The organisation #UniteBehind reckons there is reason to believe a syndicate is behind all the fire incidents.

“The attacks are well planned and executed and there is never any arrest,” says Matthew Hirsch, a spokesperson for the civil rights organisation.

Ricardo Mackenzie, member of the Western Cape standing committee on transport, says: “Clearly there are individuals out to cause pandemonium.”

His colleague Cameron Dugmore agrees a syndicate is a strong possibility.

Dr. Blade Nzimande, national transport minister, on Friday viewed the damages to the trains and literally scratched his head when he said there are many motives for the torching of trains.

Steve Harris, general secretary of the transport union Untu, says overcrowded trains and delays are worsening by the second.

“Those behind the torching of trans are taking bread from the mouths of families.”

After the past two fire incidents – only ses days apart – questions are being asked if it is not politically motivated. It however appears as if no one is willing to address the elephant in the room.

Hirsch mentions: “the slow progress with investigations mean the motives remain a mystery.

“It is highly likely that the deeds are committed by state capture networks.

“The recent kidnapping of Khanyisile Kweyama, chairperson of the Prasa Board, should also not be seen in isolation from the train fire incidents.”

In only the past 6 weeks 23 train coaches were destroyed.

Richard Walker, regional manager of Metrorail, says after last week Saturday’s fire on Cape Town station, a carriage at the same station was discovered with petrol spilled all over the seats.

Mackenzie says: “The sabotage of so many trains is a clear indication commuters and trains are not safe.

“This can only be resolved with more security on stations and in trains.”

According to a safety report of the rail safety regulator 69% of all railway-safety-related incidents are theft.

“Compared to 2015/2016 there has been an increase of 13% in safety-related incidents and 14% in the amount of deaths, that are directly linked with an increase in crime,” reads the report.

Nzimande says there are no plans to call in the army, for this problem.

“Prasa spends alot of money on security, but we don’t get any value for our money.

“To safe guard trains does not only mean carriages, but also the lives of commuters.

“The Cape Region is now a priority and a taskteam must report back by end of August with proposals for solutions.”

Sibusiso Sithole, group chief executive office of Prasa, says plans were to bring new trains to the Western Cape in 2019. After the torching of trains the past week he says those plans are now being reconsiderd.

HONEST

#UniteBehind says Prasa already admitted to them that there are no plans to bring new trains to the province in the next few years.

“Torching of trains cannot be used as excuse. Prasa should be honest if they want to restore commuter confidence,” says Hirsch.

On social media commuters are fed-up for “Metrofail”.

The Western Cape and in particular Cape Town, is without a safe, effective and reliable rail transportnetwork, experiencing it’s biggest challenge yes, means Dugmore.

“The current service is a threat to employment security. Thousands arrive late for work and people pay more to travel.”

Mackenzie says he is not just happy. “I am angry!

“If I am disappointed by the service I have alternative means. There are thousands who don’t have.

“Staff at stations are uninformed and some irritated to help commuters. Just in the week I asked how delayed my train would be and was told: ‘it’s coming, just wait.’

“Metrorail should not wait for everything to go wrong before they communicate with commuters.”

• This article originally appear in Afrikaans in Son op Sondag of 29 July 2018

Metrorail: It's a crisis, but there is a plan

Damages to the rail infrastructure is what we can see but what about the damages to people’s lives who are unable to get to work or home.

These the words of Western Cape Transport Minister Donald Grant, who says commuters should be the number one priority.

Prasa Acting Group CEO, Cromet Molepo, during a media tour to Metrorail’s notorious Central Line says there is a plan…

The tour comes hours after a test train derailed, shortly before the line would have been reopened after it was closed for more than a week. The closure was due to a labour dispute, following the fatal shooting of an armed security guard and destruction of two substations, that are needed to ensure trains can move.

For years little investment took place in passenger rail, and from the little that was invested some went to the wrong pockets.

Current management inherited a system falling apart and as if that was not enough to deal with, crime and gang related activities in various communities have started to not only affect but spill over onto the tracks.

On 12 January I wrote in an article trains are a national crisis. Prasa for the first time in a statement admitted “national intervention is needed”. A few days later ANC member of the WCPP Standing Committee on Transport, Cameron Dugmore, also said “we should consider the situation a national crisis”.

In another article on 17 January I mention the train system can come to a halt in the province. Vandalism and cable theft already started to spread to other lines, and if nothing is done there will be no movement on any of the lines.

Nana Zenani, spokesperson for Prasa, says if we don’t learn from Bonteheuwel and Khayelitsha the system can collapse.

“It is not only cable theft taking place but vandalism of infrastructure and staff and commuters that are robbed and whose lives are in danger.”

During the Central line media tour, deputy director-general for rail at the department of transport, Mathabatha Mokoena, stop short of saying passenger rail is a national crisis. Instead he admitted passenger rail is in a critical state. According to him DoT is committed to preventing trains coming to a standstill and if needs be budget adjustments will be done and even additional funding be asked from Treasury.

Cosatu in the Western Cape have also express their concern for the safety of commuters. “Everyone should be working together to ensure a safe rail environment,” says Tony Ehrenreich, provincial secretary.

Head of SAPS railway police, Maj.-gen. Michael Mohlala, says they will be working more closely with Metrorail to clampdown on cable thieves.

Mohlala said that in future, cable theft crime scenes will be completely sealed off by forensics officers, fingerprints will be taken and compared with metals sold to scrap metal dealers.

Previously, the crime scenes had been walked over by the repairmen and no clues were left.

When asked about deployment of officers on trains, especially during peak, Mohlala said he already requested that deployment of officers be done in accordance to the needs of the rail operator.

Most notably absent was not only City of Cape Town Mayco Member for Transport, Brett Herron, but also ward councillors in the affected area.

When asked about ward councillors who are the first contact with communities, not being invited, Prasa GCEO said he was not part of organizing committee but asked that all stakeholders be invited.

MEC Grant in his speech made mention of including the city. “We all need to work together and pull in the same direction.”

Chairwoman of the Cape Business Chamber, Janine Myburgh, was present. Prasa appealed to her for the chamber to engage their members, considering the state of the railway service, not to dismiss employees for late arrival because of train delays

When asked if he’s satisfied with and the level of communication to commuters, Molepo before I could complete my question said: “No, I can never be. Not if I look at the amount of complaints”.

There seems to be no clear deadlines for what is planned, nor is Prasa giving more detailsMolepo’s response is: “we cannot reveal the details of our plan. Criminals are clever, they watch TV, listen to radio and read”.

Also read:
* Pyne oor die lyne
* Keer 'n ramp

Moving Metrorail's Mountain

Thousands of commuters are daily faced with train delays and cancellations, if only there we proper communication those delays and cancellations would not make you so frustrated.

Although I’ve pointed it out before their confession, Metrorail have admitted to me communication is their biggest weakness. I have to give it to them though that the past two years they have made some improvement on this field, and that is an ongoing thing.

For three years now I have been their biggest critic, this led to me being privy to some internal information. Having a better understanding of the network, operations and challenges – although I learn something new every week – it gave me and them the advantage of taking a look at things from an outside view and making proposals with realistic solutions. And May has thus far seen Metrorail accepting two of my proposed solutions.

Case 1:

My big issue is proactive customer communication, and I fail to understand why this cannot be done. See Metrorail cannot control passenger-related incidents, broken rails or faulty signal due to the old infrastructure, and because they operate in an open environment they are also not immune to criminal activities [this is a separate blog]. Metrorail can however ensure that they do proactive customer communication and not leave commuters stranded with more questions than answers.

Recently I invited senior Metrorail managers to join me for 10/15minutes just walking on the platforms of Cape Town station and witness the lack of [proactive] communication. The Regional Manager was on official business and could not join but the Customer Service HOD and Marketing Manager met up with me.

Normally when management make an appearance there are no problems, not even a delay. This unannounced visit showed them the reality we have to face daily though. There were platform changes with no announcements and staff on the floor was not informed. This led to the 15 minute observation turning into 40 minutes, notes were made and certain actions immediately implemented. The two even made time to assist commuters who were confuse where their train is.

Days after this various inter-departmental meetings were held and remedial action will over the next few days and weeks be implemented. Many of the suggestions I made have also been accepted and implemented.

Case 2:

If you have never been in an overcrowded train, you have probably never traveled via Metrorail. Recent arson and vandalism incidents caused train cancellations, adding pressure to the already overcrowded trains.

Metrorail’s TrainOps made some adjustments to ensure not a lot of peak trains are cancelled. Two things they might have missed are that (i) atleast the first two peak trains will be overcrowded and (ii) they don’t travel in commuter peak time and are not squashed like sardines.

I took one line, went to the drawing board and by scanning I made a proposal to Metrorail to lift the burden on one of the first peak trains of the line. Making the proposal I had to keep in-mind limited available number of sets, other options available for commuters when cancelling another train and the pressure that would add to trains after it.

While I understand their challenges, I refuse to negotiate on two things:

1. Metrorail’s operations cannot be business as usual,

2. There should be proactive communication with synergy across all platforms

I’ve started moving Metrorail’s mountain, and there’s no stopping now.