Transport Minister keeps promise to train commuters in Cape Town and introduces extra services On Tuesday, 11 March 2014, Transport Minister, Honourable Dipuo Peters took a train trip from Kraaifontein to Cape Town station conducting on-site inspections of the Metrorail facilities and services and interacting with commuters during the ride. Minister Peters boarded train 3502 which departed from Kraaifontein station at 05h54 and arrived at Cape Town station at 06h47. Commuters strongly raised to her what was wrong about the services provided by Metrorail, among which were a shortage of trains in the mornings and afternoons when they went to and came back from work, resulting in the trains being almost always full during these peak periods. Minister Peters listened to the various complaints of the commuters and undertook to address them in phases, from immediate, to medium and long term The Ministry of Transport takes this opportunity today to thank the commuters for their openness in their interaction with the Minister during her visit. In the immediate term, the Ministry wishes to announce today and report back to the commuters travelling in the Wellington and Bellville areas that Minister Peters heard their dissatisfactions and in response to their complaints, with effect from Monday, 7 April 2014 onwards, extra train services will be introduced. On Monday the 7th April 2014 Metrorail, through the South African Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) will introduce two extra semi-express trains from Wellington to Bellville. The schedule for the extra services will be as follows: • In the mornings there will be a semi-express train service departing from Wellington at 04h50 and arriving at Bellville station at 05h59. • A second semi-express train service will depart from Wellington from 07h46 and arrive at Bellville station at 08h48. • Since these are semi-express train services they will stop at the following stations: Mbekweni, Dal, Josafat, Muldersvlei, Kraaifontein, Stikland and Bellville. • In the afternoons, the same stops will apply and the departure and arrival times for the afternoon are as follows: ◦ The first semi-express train service in the afternoon departs Bellville at 16h08 and arrives at Wellington station at 17h10. ◦ The second semi-express train service in the afternoon departs Bellville at 18h40 and arrives at Wellington station at 19h42. ◦ The trains will stop at Stikland, Kraaifontein, Muldersvlei. Dal Josafat and Mbekweni stations. “On that early Tuesday morning on the 11th of March, we got on the train with passengers from Kraaifontein up until Cape Town and during the ride people expressed their frustrations with the train services. We listened attentively and in attempting to keep our promise, we are happy to say today, in a small way, so to speak, we are responding to those frustrations. Through the introduction of these extra services, we hope as the Department, we shall alleviate some of the overcrowding on this corridor from Wellington to Bellville. It is quite a busy corridor indeed,” said Minister Peters. “Plans are afoot to do the same in other provinces where there are shortages of train services. In the end we want to ensure that train commuters feel they are using services that they can rely on and they can be proud of. I am aware that this will not happen overnight, but I call on commuters to work with us as we continue in our efforts to make their daily travelling more safe, reliable and affordable. We are committed to improving services in public transport in general throughout the country and these are some of the steps we are taking in that direction”, concluded Minister Peters.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 17:39:52 +0000
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