Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
City’s rail system lies in ruins
THE state of some of Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) central line train stations has raised concerns among the community.
The line stopped running in November 2019 as a result of cable theft and vandalism.
Some of the stations have managed to get volunteers who do patrols while others look in dire need of such initiatives.
The Weekend Argus visited some of the stations which are now being frequented by people doing drugs and robbers.
The windows in ticket offices are broken and the concrete slabs used to build the platform have been taken out.
Earlier this year, Prasa opened some part of the line, from the Cape Town station to Langa.
At the Langa station, people have erected shacks and are refusing to move, saying that they need to be moved to serviced land.
Cape Flats Safety Forum chairperson Albie Isaacs said they were concerned about what is happening to the stations.
“We are deeply concerned about the infrastructure being vandalised because money will be needed to fix it and which might hinder the process and those who rely on trains suffer,” said Isaacs.
He said the train was the cheapest mode of transport for a lot of people and now people are spending more to travel, especially since a lot of people lost their jobs.
“We are calling on Prasa to fasttrack the fixing and reopening of the central line,” he said.
However, he said, after being approached by Prasa for help, they have provided volunteers for the central line service recovery plan.
Khayelitsha Development Forum chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said since the central line stopped operating, a lot has happened at train stations.
“There are a lot of bad activities happening in some stations where women get raped, people robbed and drug abuse,” he said.
He also said they were also part of the central line service recovery plan and were waiting for the outcomes.
Prasa spokesperson Zinobulali Mihi said they were looking into their security because they get a lot of questions around that.
She added that the fixing of vandalised stations was part of the national plan to revamp them.