Prasa vows to resume rail operations ‘soon’

Against a background of being ordered by the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) to cease all rail operations until it complied with safety requirements, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) was yesterday bullish – promising to address concerns and a possible resumption of train services for millions of stranded commuters “in weeks, not months”.

Despite not being in a position to say how much it stood to lose in revenue due to the RSR directive, Prasa spokesperson Makhosini Mgitywa conceded that the impact was bound to have dire financial consequences for the state-owned enterprise.

The administrator Bongisizwe Mpondo has pledged to fix the embattled state entity over 12 months.

Added Mgitywa: “Prasa has complied with the directive issued by RSR by winding down main line passenger services operations. A plan to cease all operations was submitted to RSR and accepted.”

Optimistic that Prasa would resume operations “in weeks, not months”, Mgitywa said the agency has developed an intervention plan to address immediate risks associated with manual train authorisation, driver behaviour, security and infrastructure.

On Shosholoza Meyl, elements of the Prasa plan included review and strengthening of controls to effectively manage risks of collisions and derailments, inherent in manual authorisation of trains.

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