Railway travel, a precious asset gone to waste
ITHINK South Africa lost a wonderful opportunity to develop trade and travel when it was decided (by whom?) to downgrade the country’s railway system. I grew up in an age when the train service was the primary means of moving people and goods about the country. It was a normal part of life for school kids to travel to and from boarding school by train. In the cities pupils took the suburban trains to school and back, using convenient term season tickets. Farmers sent their produce to market by train.
The postal service operated a special carriage where mail was sorted as the train rumbled across the Karoo between the Cape and Johannesburg.
By the time the mail train arrived, the Transvaal mail was already sorted into all the relevant bags for delivery. Special car trains carried new vehicles from the factories in Port Elizabeth to Bloemfontein, Joburg and Durban.
Milk trains stopped at rural sidings along the line, collecting milk and cream from farms and returning empty milk cans. Trains were a part of everybody’s lives.
The railways was one of the biggest job providers in the country, employing not only train drivers and crew, but also mechanics, caterers, builders, painters, gardeners, you name it.
There was a whole community of railway people. My old home town of Noupoort was a bustling hub of 24-hour railway activity as trains arrived and were reassembled to travel the rails between Cape Town, Joburg, Kimberley, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
As with modern air transport, there was first class where the wealthy could ride in luxury, and third class for those who simply needed to get to places safely and cheaply.
If we ordered goods from the city, they came by train and we would be informed by the station master that there was a consignment for us.
Trains arrived and departed almost every hour of the day. Now, when I travel through the country I look with sadness at the well-built railway houses standing abandoned and crumbling at small sidings along the hardly-used lines.
Travel by road has become an unpleasant business as long lines of heavy trucks clog the way, transporting the goods that once went by rail. It all seems such a waste.
We have thousands of kilometres of well-constructed railway lines and millions of unemployed people who could be working on them.
We also have millions of people who could be travelling across the country safely and comfortably. I often wonder why our decision-makers decided to waste such a precious asset.
Last Laugh
The chief executive of a large bank decided to pay a few unannounced inspection visits to some of the small country branches.
He walked into one platteland branch and was shocked to see three employees sitting behind the counter playing poker, using the bank’s money as chips.
He decided to give them a wake-up surprise and pressed the fire alarm bell three times.
The bank staff didn’t even look up, but a waiter came hurrying across from the hotel over the road, carrying a tray with three cold beers on it.