Restoring SA’s rails: Can Prasa deliver by 2027?

It seems there could be light at the end of the vandalised train tunnel which is the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), as it works to restore to service the Metrorail commuter lines and stations trashed during Covid.

The sight of gutted station buildings, bare tracks where the steel rails had been stolen and the bare overhead electricity pylons left after copper power lines were stolen has been, in many ways, a motif for the decline in infrastructure in our country.

And, let’s not forget, the ANC-run Prasa and Metrorail, under the department of transport, cannot lay the blame solely on the effects of the pandemic.

Lines and stations were left unguarded across the country because the railway police had been replaced by private operators, which then disappeared in disputes over their contracts.

Billions in taxpayer money has been allocated – and is being spent – on the renovation process which, Prasa claims, has seen 80% of rail lines put back in service across the country.

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While that seems laudable, one has to wonder why it is going to take until the 2027-28 financial year to complete the remaining 20%.

Still, we’ll take this as a win and though, as we’ve said before, one should not praise a fish for swimming, perhaps this turnaround is the green shoots of a bigger bounce back from the years of state capture, which cost us trillions and set development back by decades.

Rail transport is a critical piece of infrastructure for a developing country – and China’s construction of thousands of kilometres of high-speed rail links is a major reason 70% of its people have been lifted out of poverty in the past two decades.

High-speed rail, despite our politicians’ promises, is a dream… but ordinary commuter trains could become a symbol of our country’s recovery.