The United National Transport Union (Untu) has lashed out against South African railway services, including the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) and Transnet, stating that it needed to provide proper service, or face “total collapse”.

The union said that a number of incidents in the last week proved that the State-owned company was in disarray.

On Wednesday, angry commuters in KwaZulu-Natal stoned and set a train, travelling between Durban and the South Coast, alight, as PRASA “was unable to provide a proper service to them”.

“PRASA in KwaZulu-Natal are currently in a double red situation where they can’t run a full service due to the shortage of train coaches,” Untu said in a statement.

PRASA admitted in an internal report earlier this month that its service offering at Metrorail, its urban passenger commuter service, is at an all-time low of only 40% after 375 coaches were vandalised in the first six months of this financial year.

There are only 248 train sets provided each day, instead of the required 287 sets, as 1 827 coaches are not in service.

Untu general secretary Steve Harris said that its members were also caught in the chaos. “As if the situation is not unbearable enough another two Untu members were robbed at gunpoint while working on trains to KwaMashu that was stranded owing to cable theft.

“One of our female members was stabbed in her hand when the robbers took her cell phone. Her colleagues were assaulted before a cell phone was taken off.

“This happened while the regional security team were fully aware of the cable theft and the risks its poses to our members. Nothing was done to put extra safety measures in place to guard PRASA’s employees working on the section. These members were also severely traumatised,“ said Harris.

He added that these latest incidents in the province made a mockery of the rapid rail safety awareness campaign launched by the South African Police Service (SAPS) last week.

The aim of the campaign, a collaboration between the SAPS, PRASA and other stakeholders, is aimed at creating safety awareness amongst commuters. Special task teams have been deployed at hot spots that were identified by PRASA and the SAPS increased its visibility on all railway stations and on trains.

“The latest incidents just show that commuters have no respect for the SAPS and that criminals are not afraid of them,” said Harris.

Untu asked the SAPS last week not only to protect commuters, but to guard train crews who are considered a soft target. “The SAPS simply said that this was the responsibility of the malfunctioning PRASA and not of the SAPS.

“Untu believes crime is crime. It is irrelevant to whom it is committed. The SAPS have a constitutional obligation to protect all South African citizens irrespective of where they work,” said Harris.

Meanwhile, the union also noted that PRASA’s customer service was lacking. Earlier this week, PRASA’s long-distance passenger train service, the Shosholoza Meyl train, travelling to the Eastern Cape, was delayed owing to a Transnet Freight Rail train derailing near Bloemfontein.

“Since Monday, Untu phoned the customer care hotline repeatedly to get first-hand knowledge of what affected commuters or potential clients should do. A voice note on the number simply says ‘sorry, this number is busy’. No other options are provided,” Harris pointed out.

“If PRASA management is serious in its attempts to prevent the passenger railway service from totally collapsing, they should have staff at hand like any other professional service to handle enquiries and to assist commuters where needs be,” he added.

Harris emphasised that PRASA needed to realise that the poorest of the poor were dependent on its services. “If they paid for a train ticket to go home for the festive season, they don’t have the money to pay a bus fare if the train is no longer available. This is a fact that PRASA’s management who are not dependent on its poor service, seems to forget.

“It is simply not in the best interest of the South African public to allow PRASA to collapse as millions of South African tax payers have no other option but to make use of trains,” said Harris.