Prasa back on track after 32-hour stop

The Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) has given the troubled Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) a reprieve, granting the state-owned company a temporary safety permit to resume rail operations after a 32-hour halt, which inconvenienced thousands of passengers.

After years of operating technically substandard trains, which ferry almost two million passengers daily, the regulator this week ordered Prasa to put the brakes on its operations out of concern for the safety of commuters and employees in terms of the Railway Safety Regulator Act.

Earlier, the regulator ordered Prasa to stop operations until it was satisfied with the agency’s planned interventions to address safety concerns.

It said Prasa had failed to demonstrate that it had “the ability, commitment, and resources to properly assess and effectively control the risks and the safety of its customers, staff, contractors, visitors and others who may be affected by its railway operations”.

The United National Transport Union (Untu) – a majority union within Prasa – also expressed concern that its members, some of whom were train drivers, were being forced to work under unsafe conditions at Prasa.

Prasa yesterday said it was “pleased that an agreement has been reached with the RSR” and that the temporary reprieve would “allow the safety regulator to scrutinise submission for the renewal of the safety permit application”.

Board chairperson Khanyisile Kweyama said Prasa regarded rail system operations “as an integral part of Prasa’s statutory mandate”.

“We’ve been working hard to ensure that the improvement of safety is placed at its rightful place and with the time given to us by the RSR [regulator], we will make sure that management addresses all the safety issues they have identified.”

Kweyama said Prasa found it “impractical to cease operations over the past 32 hours”.

“We expected either the granting of the safety permit or the extension of the previous permit to allow the RSR to consider the renewal application,” she added.

Kweyama said halting rail operations would have led to:

the inability of almost two million commuters to reach their places of work – with many of them unable to afford any means of alternative transport; and

the inability of Transnet to make use of the network – costing the economy millions of rands.

She said the Prasa board “will be engaging with the minister of transport [Blade Nzimande] and the RSR to ensure that the parties do not find themselves in the invidious position that they were in over the past 32 hours”.