The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) was not ready to operate from 1 June, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula said on Saturday.
“When we presented Level 4 Directions, we indicated that commuter rail will resume operations gradually on an incremental basis, based on detailed plans submitted by operators,” said Mbalula.
He added that the Gautrain resumed its operations at the beginning of May 2020 and as on 1 June 2020, it will resume the airport service.
PRASA is not ready to resume
“Through our ongoing engagements and evaluation of PRASA’s state of readiness to resume operations, we have concluded that PRASA is not ready to resume with the Metrorail commuter service,” said Mbalula.
“We continue to work closely with PRASA in assessing each line and put measures in place to achieve an acceptable level of readiness.
“We have therefore revised our timelines in respect of the resumption of the Metrorail commuter service.”
The revised target date is now 1 July 2020, on the following lines:
- Pretoria to Pienaarspoort;
- Cape Town to Simonstown;
- East London to Berlin; and
- Port Elizabeth to Uitenhage
Long distance trains remain prohibited.
