y
ee r F
p Co
Est 2009 Tel : 011 023-7588 / 011 402 - 1977 Inner-City Gazette
Fax: 086 609 8601
Issue 13 - 2019
Email : info@inner-city-gazette.co.za
inner_gazette
4 - 11 April 2019
Website : www.inner-city-gazette.com
072 824 3014
Inner City Gazette
Distributed free to households, churches, schools, clinics, government departments, police stations, libraries and businesses in Bellevue • Berea • Bertrams • Braamfontein • City and Suburban • City West • Crown Gardens • Doornfontein • Fairview • Fordsburg • Hillbrow • Jeppestown • Jules • Johannesburg Inner City • Kensington • Lorentzville • Malvern • Marshallstown • New Doornfontein • Newtown • North Doornfontein • Park Meadows • Rosettenville • Selby • Troyeville • Turffontein • Village Main and Yeoville .
Gauteng govt takes over trains from Prasa
‘The rolling stock is old but also the infrastructure of the signalling system is old, maintenance is poor, the service itself is very poor. Trains must be the travel mode of choice, especially long distances’ Johannesburg - On Tuesday Gauteng Premier David Makhura said the provincial government would soon take over the running of trains from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa). Speaking at the unveiling of TMH Africa’s recently acquired rolling stock manufacturing plant in Boksburg, Makhura said the provincial legislature has passed a law that gives the province powers to run the passenger rail system. He said there is also a law passed in parliament for urban regions to operate integrated public transport systems. “Provincial government will now operate not only buses, but also the Metrorail system. Prasa will be devolved to the provincial government. We are going integrate Prasa and the Gautrain. The new public transport system will just be like the Gautrain by standard, look, feel and efficiency.” Makhura said.
He added that in the last sitting of the Gauteng Legislature the Transport Authority Bill was passed, to create a single transport authority in Gauteng. “The transport authority that will be created has been part of our vision for a long time. It will integrate the rail system, the buses, the taxi industry into a single, more efficient and reliable transport system in Gauteng,” he said. The Transport Authority Bill (2018) was introduced by Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Ismail Vadi in August last year before the portfolio committee on roads and transport in the Gauteng provincial legislature. Vadi had then said that a legally constituted transport authority will transform the current fragmentation of public transport governance and better co-ordinate public transport operations in the province. The responsibility for planning,
Commuters ride on an overloaded train in Johannesburg.
coordination, optimisation, rationalisation and facilitation of public transport functions, authorities, systems and resources within the province will rest with the body once up and running. Makhura said modernisation of the whole rail network system is critical
as rail is the backbone of the South African public transport system in the National Development Plan. “Prasa needs to overhaul its rolling stock. In this country many people use the rail system and it’s not so much by choice. They use the rail system because it’s the cheapest
mode, but it’s in terrible shape. The big challenge is that the rolling stock is old but also the infrastructure of the signalling system is old, maintenance is poor, the service itself is very poor. Trains must be a travel mode of choice, especially long distances,” Makhura said.