Short Trains - Shorter Tempers!
After decades of disinvestment by Government, keeping our nation's railway services on track is a huge challenge. The commitment, tenacity and resilience of the railways fraternity is commendable and encouraging. It shows how many people of character are getting us there and back; they are the unsung heroes of today.
So many commuter trains had been gutted by arsonists and vandals - I call it sabotage - that some train service have been cancelled altogether while the remaining ones are now making use of shorter trains, to even the spread. Train sets typically consisted of thirteen bogey sets but the average number now is eight.
Of course, the number of daily commuters have remained the same and this is leading to a bit of chaos. Trains now are so overladen that it is even very difficult to disembark halfway, or even to board, as door passages are crammed to the hilt.
People rant; they are angry, tempers flaring up and much is being said on social media.
It will take many years to repair or replace the train carriages that were destroyed, some which are motor carriages meaning that they have electric engines. These are very expensive to replace. The older 5M train sets were produced from 1962 and the newer 10M3's date from around 1989 - I stand corrected on this - and then there are a few 8M train sets being brought back into service. Even the 1962-built ones could have served us well, had it not been for people who set trains alight, or slash seats, stealing upholstery material, etc.
As long as our national government does not properly fund and protect (why are our soldiers not protecting our trains?) the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa - PRASA for short - we will endure major discomfort.
Plan accordingly.
Also, I took this from a post on social media:
I am Pete, an independent travel blogger and I do not represent any railway service, nor I am paid by anyone.
So many commuter trains had been gutted by arsonists and vandals - I call it sabotage - that some train service have been cancelled altogether while the remaining ones are now making use of shorter trains, to even the spread. Train sets typically consisted of thirteen bogey sets but the average number now is eight.
Of course, the number of daily commuters have remained the same and this is leading to a bit of chaos. Trains now are so overladen that it is even very difficult to disembark halfway, or even to board, as door passages are crammed to the hilt.
People rant; they are angry, tempers flaring up and much is being said on social media.
It will take many years to repair or replace the train carriages that were destroyed, some which are motor carriages meaning that they have electric engines. These are very expensive to replace. The older 5M train sets were produced from 1962 and the newer 10M3's date from around 1989 - I stand corrected on this - and then there are a few 8M train sets being brought back into service. Even the 1962-built ones could have served us well, had it not been for people who set trains alight, or slash seats, stealing upholstery material, etc.
As long as our national government does not properly fund and protect (why are our soldiers not protecting our trains?) the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa - PRASA for short - we will endure major discomfort.
Plan accordingly.
Also, I took this from a post on social media:
WHAT IS WRONG WITH METRORAIL - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. Metrorail is a division of Prasa, owned by the State, by virtue of Dept of Transport (DoT)
2. Its only funding is from Treasury, an organ of Dept of Finance. (DoF) and then a little bit through ticket sales.
3. It is an essential service yet gets around R5 subsidy per passenger as opposed to MyCiti bus that gets about five times as much.
4. Trains are old but, if not vandalised, can last another fifty years. Sadly, damage is done on a daily basis.
5. Metrorail own only some of the railways they travel upon. Much of it is rented at a high cost from Transnet Freight Rail (TFR.) It therefore cannot legally and practically do repairs and maintenance but have to rely upon TFR.
6. By April 2016, more than seventy trains have been destroyed by some members of the public. As the State bears its own risk, there was no insurance, hence no money to replace these trains.
7. Because of less carriages now in service, trains have been shortened to an average of eight carriages instead of thirteen. It means we are packed like sardines.
8. Sabotage of signals systems result in speed restrictions enforced by the Rail Safety Regulator, an independent body similar to the Civil Aviation Authority that oversees air travel. The RSR imposes heavy fines if Metrorail don't stick to the rules. Manual authorisations (read my recent post on that https://awethentiq.wordpress.com/…/metrorail-manual-train-…/ also cause trains to "stand still for no reason.")
9. Cable theft is another issue and SAPS don't seem to be on top of it. I am much for deploying the military to protect our national assets and our essential services.
10. Metrorail is much the victim same as you and I. Fighting them is adding to the problem. We need to change the negativity that erodes what is left.
1. Metrorail is a division of Prasa, owned by the State, by virtue of Dept of Transport (DoT)
2. Its only funding is from Treasury, an organ of Dept of Finance. (DoF) and then a little bit through ticket sales.
3. It is an essential service yet gets around R5 subsidy per passenger as opposed to MyCiti bus that gets about five times as much.
4. Trains are old but, if not vandalised, can last another fifty years. Sadly, damage is done on a daily basis.
5. Metrorail own only some of the railways they travel upon. Much of it is rented at a high cost from Transnet Freight Rail (TFR.) It therefore cannot legally and practically do repairs and maintenance but have to rely upon TFR.
6. By April 2016, more than seventy trains have been destroyed by some members of the public. As the State bears its own risk, there was no insurance, hence no money to replace these trains.
7. Because of less carriages now in service, trains have been shortened to an average of eight carriages instead of thirteen. It means we are packed like sardines.
8. Sabotage of signals systems result in speed restrictions enforced by the Rail Safety Regulator, an independent body similar to the Civil Aviation Authority that oversees air travel. The RSR imposes heavy fines if Metrorail don't stick to the rules. Manual authorisations (read my recent post on that https://awethentiq.wordpress.com/…/metrorail-manual-train-…/ also cause trains to "stand still for no reason.")
9. Cable theft is another issue and SAPS don't seem to be on top of it. I am much for deploying the military to protect our national assets and our essential services.
10. Metrorail is much the victim same as you and I. Fighting them is adding to the problem. We need to change the negativity that erodes what is left.
Where change is needed, is at the top. We need central government to prioritise rail travel infrastructure, to properly fund it, to protect it and also to protect us. The outsourced security companies are, in my own opinion, a waste of good money as they are not functioning; it is that simple.
I am Pete, an independent travel blogger and I do not represent any railway service, nor I am paid by anyone.
Hi Pete Mafutha
ReplyDeleteI do not think that we must shorten the trains.
The congestion of the doorways and congestion of the actual trains themselves is the problem with shorter trains.
Everybody want to get to there destinations first. if their are shorter trains you will have more trains and if their are more trains then we will have a bigger backlog when things go south.
Our rail infrastructure is very old, and can only carry so many trains. The same as with building more dams government spend the money instead of supplying better trains.
Remember, the daily commuters have not remained the same, they have increased and are increasing every year more and more. The reason for this is that life expectancy has now increased and people find they can work longer as they live longer as well as the fact that people have to work longer as less and less people can retire, they have used their savings up to get their kids to have a better education. #FeesMustFall is proof of this phenomena.
The long term solution that I can think of is that Metrorail must start to create jobs and they must get a new division and call them Metro Police.
These guys can then operate on trains and keep the commuters save and happy so more and more people will use the trains as it will become a safe alternative to travel. Tourism will increasingly use the trains as it will be deemed as a safe way to get across the country in a dignified way and will not cost you an arm and a leg to do so. The Metro Rail Police can also regulate the amount of people that uses a carriage.
Now a train of a 13 bogie commuters try to get into an 8 bogie train not only is this dangerous it is also unsafe. The maintenance on the trains will be astronomical as everything on the undercarriage of the trains will wear so much faster as the trains are carrying so much more of a normal load.
This in itself is a accident waiting to happen!
(PLEASE, IF YOU HAVE ANY PERSONS EAR THAT YOU CAN BEND TO LISTEN TO THIS. PLEASE DO SO.)
Now, if we can police this not only will there be more jobs created there will be so many more tax payers...