The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) says that the full recovery of commuter rail services nationally is its top priority.
This follows a threat by the City of Cape Town that an intergovernmental dispute will be declared against the state owned company, if President Cyril Ramaphosa does not respond to a request to create a joint working committee on rail devolution by the end of this month.
Prasa Spokesperson Andiswa Makanda says that there’s progress.
“I was quite surprised with the statement that there is no movement in Cape Town. We are running services in Cape Town. We fully recovered the southern line, we’re running on the northern corridor, we’re also running on the central line from Cape Town to Nyanga. There’s a lot of work happening in the Western Cape, in terms of recovering the service. We’re increasing the patronage, we’ve seen a gradual increase of passenger numbers, people are coming back. The Germiston line that we’re launching today officially, we’re carrying about 10 000 commuters daily. So, we are seeing a demand, for passenger rail services- which is why we’re trying to speed up the recovery of the services.”
Related video: In July, Scopa warned the City of Cape Town, Prasa Africa to get their houses in order:
