Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula will launch the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) ministerial war room on Thursday in an effort drive a plan to dramatically improve the on-time performance of commuter rail services in South Africa within the next 100 days.
The department’s visit to the signal cabin in Germiston was to identify and outline a plan of action to the dilapidated rail infrastructure.
The launch of the war room is coupled with an introduction to a new electronic system for tracking trains as opposed to the old analogue signalling system.
During Mbalula’s inspection at the Elsburg Train Station, it was highlighted that the rail network signalling system was in urgent need of upgrades.
The war room is in response to a number of deadly train crashes in the country, and will monitor trains, check for arrival times, and address infrastructure problems at Prasa.
Service recovery serves as one of the department’s objectives to ensure passengers get to their destinations without any crashes or collisions, the department has said.
Departments moved from the control signal cabin in Germiston and will meet at the Prasa nerve centre in Kaalfontein for the official launch of the war room.
Mbalula, while delivering his department’s budget vote in Parliament, vowed that specific targets which had to be realised in the next hundred days included improving on-time performance of Metrorail from 73.3% to 85%.
Other targets include increasing the number of Metrorail train sets available from the current average of 200 to 291.
(Compiled by Gopolang Moloko)
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