Passenger train service to Cape Town a ‘risky business’
THE recent rail accident wherein 18 people were killed and more than 200 injured has stimulated me to bring to your readers’ notice my uncomfortable experience when my wife and I travelled on this service from Durban to Cape Town in 2012.
We travelled to Cape Town with friends of ours from Howick and, judging by our experience, I am not at all surprised that a serious “accident” has now occurred.
I am aware that the direct cause of this tragedy was a truck collision at a level crossing, but judge for yourself the level of safety precautions in operation, after reading my experience below.
The sequence of our experience was as follows: although we had reserved and paid for adjacent coupes on a coach for our two families, when we went on board we found that our coupes were two coaches apart and we had to convince the “train manager” (not in a uniform or other dress to indicate her position) to reposition the two families next to each other. After going through Pietermaritzburg, the train started to go at an alarmingly high speed, especially through curves in the tracks, and we got into a friendly conversation with a couple of retired SAR&H engine driver employees who both expressed their concern at the excessive speeds.
I had hoped for the chance to view the scenic Hex River Valley when we approached Cape Town in the early morning of the next day, but was amazed to be rudely disturbed at sunrise, already in Cape Town station, by the bedding staff demanding that we hand back our bedding linen and blankets.
We were more than two hours earlier in Cape Town than the scheduled time, and I had to phone my son to come in early and pick us up. One wonders what risks the train driver had taken in the night regarding goods trains travelling our route and keeping to their “presumed” schedules of going through stations and points.
In the catering coach, the only hot supper on offer was a takeaway-style fish and chips (which was tasty).
For the return journey, my friends had arranged to leave at Pietermaritzburg, but the train inspector could not tell them the time of arrival because, on questioning him during the night, he admitted he did not know where the train was! How does a traveller rate his safety when in the hands of such unqualified and reckless staff of Shosholoza Meyl Rail? I certainly will never place myself at risk in their hands ever again. Errol Hicks Hillcrest