Rail operations at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (Prasa’s) R1.3-billion Bridge City Station and Rail Precinct project will start on February 1, with a limited service.
Prasa said in October that the service was set to start full operations at the beginning of 2014.
The project links communities from Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu to Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal.
Prasa notes that a battery of tests in December showed “that there were outstand-ing matters on the snag list which related par-ticularly to the signalling system and that these have a bearing on the safety of commuters”.
Prasa group CEO Lucky Montana subse-quently ordered further tests.
Prasa was set to continue tests during January, followed by the introduction of a limited service from Bridge City Station to Durban on February 1.
“Once we are satisfied with the safety aspects of the system, we will roll out the service in full. The roll-out of the service will, however, be dependent on whether the outstanding matters have been satisfactorily addressed,” says Montana.
Actom Signalling carried out the signalling contract on the Bridge City project.
Engineering News learnt that a “very old style interlocking” had proved to make work on the project “very challenging”.
The Bridge City project integrates a number of public transport services into one transport hub.
A passenger railway line connects to a newly developed station located underneath the Bridge City Shopping Mall. The hub also allows for a bus and taxi interchange.