By Rachel Mohamed
The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) has introduced the new blue and white Electric Multiple Units on the Central Line in the Western Cape, extending service from Nyanga to Mandalay station. This marks the first deployment of the People’s Train on this route, featuring advanced amenities like automated doors, CCTV cameras, and air-conditioning.
Speaking on VOC’s Sunday Live show on Sunday PRASA’s Acting Regional Manager Raymond Maseko said that Prasa had previously done marketing research to move with the times of using modern technology to improve their trains.
“Since 2012 Prasa went into the market to try and modernize its fleet. One of the interesting points about South Africa that people would not know, is that the yellow and grey trains are the 50’s technology. They started arriving in 1957 and were finally constructed in 1980, the route was from Cape Town to Khayelitsha, and commuters used to call it silver,” he said.
Maseko further highlights that “The new trains are a modern fleet and in terms of passenger comfort and safety, it has more features than the previous one.”
“It has sixteen motors and only needs to have two motors to take passengers from Cape Town Kapteinklip or Khayelitsha and inside the trains they have CCTV cameras for safety, security, and climate control for air-conditioning,” he stated.
“The CCTV cameras are monitored by the driver of the train, and they can see what is happening within the coach as there are four security guards, this practice was started in 2019 using the old yellow sets but the problem was people could not see it because the two guards had to be placed in two different coaches in the old trains.”
With the new set inside the trains, the driver can communicate with the guards as there is an intercom and can easily direct them if a problem should occur for emergency purposes and have an inter emergency lever on the door in case a passenger feels unsafe, they can pull the red lever, a snapshot is taken in real-time of what is happening and that snapshot relates to the central control area to see what was happening when the commuter pulled the lever so that they could respond to the emergency of the commuter.
“Prasa has not only upgraded the trains but also the infrastructure that was installed after the Second World War the technology dates back to 1948 the latest technology as the time being 1973 the new one is called the signaling project and upgrading the robots system on the tracks and on the 9th of August will be commissioning this new system by controlling lines from Cape Town to Bonteheuwel on the central lines. As Prasa we want to run a predictable service where a train arrives every ten minutes in these corridors and the next train will come after ten minutes.”
Prasa has piloted this system on the Southern Line where there will be a train every twenty minutes and “are hoping to achieve this service within the next calendar year. This year we are fixing the pear way which is our rail network and putting our signaling. Next year we are optimizing our system to run a train every ten minutes as Prasa is improving the signaling to run the central line its services.”
When asked about passenger feedback on the introduction of the new trains, Maseko said that “passengers are extremely happy”.
Prasa conducted a survey where they found that commuters comprised 52% women and 48% men and the number one factor was safety followed by affordability.
“The other security element is if someone blocks the door of the train, the locomotive does not move and that is an additional measure of safety, and no one can fall off the train as a result of overloading.”
“We appreciate the feedback we have received via our social media platforms on X, Facebook, and WhatsApp line on what to improve this coming week the commuters to Retreat via the Athlone route have indicated to us that they want new trains and we are introducing those soon, he concluded.”
VOC News
Photo: @PRASA_Group/X
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