South African parastatal Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) and French national State-owned railway company SNCF, as well as the French Development Agency (AFD), have signed a tripartite financial partnership agreement amounting to R6.15-million in the form of a grant.
SNCF will provide expertise, training and exchange of experiences to PRASA in an effort to strengthen PRASA’s capacity as it moves to deliver on the R59-billion contract with the Gibela Rail Transport Consortium, in which Alstom has a stake, to manufacture and supply 3 600 train cars (600 trains) at the Dunnottar Park facility, in Gauteng.
The year-long partnership will ensure PRASA’s new trains are operation-ready, deployed on time, and operated with the support of France’s extensive experience in the railway transport industry.
In addition, SNCF will deploy a technical expert to be permanently based in South Africa for the duration of the agreement.