Prasa lays out vision for massive expansion of rail system

Prasa says commuters could eventually see trains running every five minutes during peak hours, although its signalling programme could take about two years to roll out once contracts were awarded.

Passenger Rail Agency of SA group CEO Hishaam Emeran said expanding services safely depended on resolving capacity constraints across the network.

Speaking at the launch of October Transport Month, hosted by transport minister Barbara Creecy at the Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership in partnership with the National Press Club on Thursday, Emeran said trains could operate at five-minute intervals during peak periods once the signalling upgrades were completed.

“Some corridors currently have trains running every 40 minutes or even half-an-hour, while passenger numbers have increased significantly as services were restored,” he said.

Prasa recorded more than 100-million passenger trips in the past financial year, after restoring 35 of its 40 priority passenger rail corridors.

Emeran said the increase in passengers meant Prasa now needed to focus on putting more trains on the network.

“Many of the commuters are asking that they need more trains. And we can only do that safely once we’ve got signalling in place, therefore commuters will have to wait for the larger signalling programme to be completed,” he said.

Emeran said Prasa was still in the process of procuring and securing service providers for the programme, which he described as a multibillion-rand project.

He said the two-year period would start once the contracts were awarded.

“In the meantime, Prasa is looking at ways to increase services on corridors that have already been restored,” he said.

“But at the moment we are looking at adding one or two trains during peak hours on corridors such as Mabopane and Leralla by adjusting timetables and making infrastructure improvements.”

In Gauteng, Emeran identified the Daveyton-Etwatwa corridor on the East Rand as one of the key corridors that needed to be restored.

He said stations along the corridor had been vandalised, while railway tracks and electrical infrastructure had also been stolen. “It’s going to be quite a big intervention that needs to happen,” he said.

Emeran said Prasa had received about 330 of the 600 new trains it had ordered. The trains, known as Isitimela Sabantu, are manufactured in Nigel, Gauteng, resulting in more than 90% of the recovered corridors being run with modern trains.

“Passenger satisfaction has also improved, with the customer satisfaction index rising from below 50% to above 75%,” he said.

He said Prasa had spent more than R50bn over the past three years on new trains and infrastructure recovery.

“We have a budget of about R18bn for the current financial year and we expect to invest close to R50bn over the next three years,” Emeran said.

Creecy said passenger trips had increased from 10-million in 2020/21 financial year, after the Covid-19 pandemic, to an audited 101-million at the end of the 2025/26 financial year.

“Prasa is working to increase the numbers and frequency of trains on its network as passenger numbers continue to rise following the recovery of most of its priority rail corridors,” she said.