Consolidating the province’s eight existing passenger train control rooms into a single, high-tech “super” control centre that will act as Gauteng’s passenger signalling hub, State-owned rail group, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), on Monday officially launched the Gauteng Rail Nerve Centre (GNC) in Kaalfontein, Tembisa, ushering in the latest investment aimed at upgrading and modernising the country’s ailing public rail transport network.

The newly built centre, which would become fully operational early next year, would enable PRASA rail operators to monitor all passenger train activities in Gauteng, introducing new technology enabling the resignalling of subprojects, automatic train routing, train tracking and routing, event logging, close-circuit television access at stations, as well as an error detection and notification system.

The centre would also house PRASA’s rail maintenance and would, once fully operational, become the “eye” overlooking PRASA’s rail network.

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters explained that the GNC concept had evolved following the undertaking of two feasibility studies into the establishment of a centralised rail operating control centre for the Metrorail Witwatersrand region.

The resultant reports deemed it feasible to merge the management of rail networks contained within the province’s Witwatersrand and Tshwane regions, resulting in the establishment of a province-wide signalling hub.

PRASA hoped the GNC would go some way towards tackling the challenges of the province’s rail infrastructure, much of which had reached the end of its design lifespan and was beset with low levels of reliability and predictability, and high maintenance costs, rendering it unable to support the province’s overarching transformation, modernisation and reindustrialisation agenda.

“The days of having a fault-based signalling system and unreliable data will become a thing of the past . . . this investment will ensure that we change the rail landscape of our country forever and put PRASA at the forefront of signalling technology.

“All the myriad of investments currently taking place in our railway industry will require integration, which makes the GNC pivotal to the whole railway system,” she commented during a tour of the newly inaugurated centre.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura added on Monday that the launch of the centre reaffirmed government’s commitment to the provision of a safe and reliable public transport system for those unable to afford private transport.

“The overwhelming majority of our province’s citizens use public transport to get to and from work every day and our immediate task is to combine all of these modes into an integrated public transport system,” he remarked.

The unveiling of the signalling centre came three days after the launch of the Department of Transport’s (DoT’s) official October Transport Month 2015, which would see intensified government efforts aimed at raising awareness around the importance of transport in the economy and encouraging the increased uptake of public transport in the country.

“It goes without saying that effective operation of the transport system depends on the inter-relationship of a number of factors, which includes governance, service delivery, management, responsibility and funding.

“The transport portfolio does not exist in isolation, but as an integral part of the economic and social fabric of our country,” Peters held.

Government, through PRASA, made use of 24 280 km of South Africa’s rail network, while owning 585 train stations and a total fleet of 4 735 coaches.

“This makes communication and integration a critical and essential element of the company’s day-to-day operations,” she noted.

Peters, meanwhile, recommitted the department to implementing the National Development Plan’s key priorities on the maintenance of road infrastructure, the upgrading of rail infrastructure and services, as well as building and operating public transportation systems, which was underpinned by the National Transport Master Plan 2050 vision.

She reiterated government’s plan to spend some R51-billion on new rail rolling stock and another R4-billion on new hybrid locomotives in the next five years.

“We can safely say that PRASA and Transnet initiatives place South Africa as having the largest wholesale renewal and general overhaul rail programme in Africa.

“We are engaging in some of the most challenging rail engineering projects of its kind, which firmly positions South Africa as the manufacturing hub of rolling stock in the African continent,” she concluded.