The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa in the Western Cape says it is working around the clock to restore its commuter services despite extensive damage caused by vandalism and rolling blackouts. Train services on major routes have been brought to a halt since the Covid-19 pandemic started, following massive destruction of the rail system network.
According to Prasa, at some point before Covid-19, the Bellville station operated more than 70 trains a day. But, the large scale destruction of the rail network system including theft of overhead cables, rail tracks and vandalism of infrastructure has affected the services. “If you look at the way we are operating the service under abnormal conditions which makes it slow and small service, but still a safe service. Now with load shedding specifically with the escalating stages, it became a big killer of this service in terms of your systems that you need as back up just can’t keep up with it. You have dark stations and you don’t have electricity there.