Prasa gets regulator red card
• Parties in legal wrangle over agency’s inability to assess and control safety risks linked to its railway operations
The Rail Safety Regulator (RSR) says the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) cannot demonstrate that it has the ability, commitment and resources to assess properly and control effectively the safety risks arising from its railway operations.
The regulator suspended the state-owned Prasa’s safety permit on October 4 following the previous day’s collision in which 320 people were injured.
It gave Prasa 48 hours to wrap up its operations and to inform its passengers, staff and contractors of the decision.
If Prasa’s safety permit is suspended all commuter and long-distance passenger services will come to a halt, leaving millions of people stranded. Prasa’s commuter unit Metrorail transports about 1.7-million people per weekday.
But Prasa challenged the suspension in the High Court in Pretoria.
The agency said it and the regulator could not reach a solution about the suspension of its safety permit, which left Prasa “with no option but to proceed with the court application”.
Prasa’s application for an urgent interim court order to lift the suspension of the safety permit imposed by the regulator meant that it was permitted to continue operating until the matter has been heard on Thursday.
The court ordered Prasa and the regulator to present immediate steps to tackle safety issues to the court on Monday.
Transport minister Blade Nzimande appealed to the parties on Monday to find an out-ofcourt settlement “in the interests of millions of commuters who daily use Metrorail”.
“I believe both the boards of the RSR and Prasa are capable of resolving their impasse cordially in the best interests of all commuters,” Nzimande said.
“Such a decision must not negatively impact on the provision of safe and secure Metrorail operations,” he said.
Acting director-general Chris Hlabisa would convene an urgent meeting between the leadership at Prasa and the regulator on Tuesday, the department said.
Neither Prasa nor the regulator published recent totals for fatalities and injuries related to Prasa’s operations, but in its latest “State of Safety Report (20162017)”, the regulator singled out Prasa as the biggest threat to personal safety on SA’s rail networks, noting sharp increases in several categories of operations.
The agency sent a contravention notice to Prasa on August 1, telling it that it was operating without a valid safety permit. Prasa was given a temporary permit and subsequently a permit to operate until July 31 2019.
The regulator spokesperson, Madelein Williams, said on Monday that other serious incidents, including seven collisions, contributed to the regulator’s decision to suspend Prasa’s safety permit. In addition to the 320 Metrorail injuries at Van Riebeeck in Kempton Park last week, 216 people were injured in a Geldenhuys (East Rand) collision and 112 in Booysens, Johannesburg.
In January, 24 people died and 260 were injured in a collision between a Prasa Shosholoza Meyl train and a truck at a level crossing near Kroonstad, Free State. Nzimande said he was still awaiting the regulator’s report on the condition of Prasa’s railway assets and the condition of the rail network.