The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa PRASA is unveiling a programme to recover and get back the Cape Town metro-rail central line in operation.
A Formal presentation by the Minister of Transport, Mr. Fikile Mbalula and PRASA Administrator, Mr. Bongisizwe Mpondo and other executive leaders of PRASA is currently underway.
Some of the plans to get the central line back on track include, Metrorail providing a limited train service between Cape Town and Philippi, with a 30 minute frequency of trains by September 2020.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
•In Sept 2020, Metrorail will provided a limited train service between Cape Town and Phillippi, with a 30 minute frequency of trains
• In April 2021 Full train service will be restored between Cape Town and Kapteinsklip in Mitchells Plein and Chris Hani… https://t.co/zQY8fKAcNP pic.twitter.com/XzuDeMDmId— Minister of Transport |Mr Fix (@MbalulaFikile) March 5, 2020
It is expected that by April 2021, full train service will be restored between Cape Town and Kapteinsklip in Mitchells Plain and Chris Hani in Khayelitsha.
@MbalulaFikile says that he is cleaning @PRASA_Group. When we return in April next we should be cutting ribbons for a refurbished #CentralLine. #FixOurTrains
— UniteBehind (@UniteBehind) March 5, 2020
R1,4 billion has been allocated to restore services on the central lines.
There are also plans to beef up security, with the introduction of Asset security (walling and fencing), Predictive security (deploy technology i.e. drones ), Preventive security (deploy more technology i.e. perimeter detection, video surveillance and access control) and Protective security (cyber, asset tracking).
SMART security strategy:
Asset security (walling and fencing)
Predictive security (deploy technology i.e. drones )
Preventive security (deploy more technology i.e. perimeter detection, video surveillance and access control)
o Protective security (cyber, asset tracking) pic.twitter.com/DO4mA4jjgB— Minister of Transport |Mr Fix (@MbalulaFikile) March 5, 2020
Minister Mbalula made PRASA a priority area since his assumption of duty characterizing the entity as broken and in urgent need of fixing.