President Ramaphosa vows to improve failing rail service

9th April 2019

By: African News Agency

  

Font size: - +

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has committed himself to improving the rail transportation industry which has been criticised in recent years for poor and inefficient service.

Ramaphosa, who visited Cape Town central train station on Tuesday morning, said: "I went onto a train in Soshanguve hoping to be in Pretoria in about 30 minutes. It took us three full hours to get to Pretoria, firstly the train arrived late and it was overcrowded and the people who were being transported were frustrated, but they also told me that, president, this is our daily experience."

Ramaphosa was in Cape Town for the launch of the new trains belonging to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).

"I promised that we are going to make sure that our trains run on time, which I have discussed with the minister, with the chairperson of the board and with the management and that is something that is soon going to be the experience of the past, because we are going to improve rail transportation, we are going to make sure that our trains arrive on time and they are not crowded but more importantly that they are safe. 

"That is what we are going to do and put into effect without any failure. Now, today, I am here in Cape Town launching this train which was made in Gauteng at the Gibela factory," the president said.

Edited by African News Agency

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION