Cape Town rail deal is mixed blessing as issue has not been resolved, Brett Herron says
Transport official Herron says he is relieved a total shutdown of Metrorail services has been avoided, but safety concerns remain
The City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for transport‚ Brett Herron‚ has described the compromise reached between the Rail Safety Regulator and Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa)‚ which has been made an order of court‚ as a “mixed blessing”. In terms of the court order‚ Prasa must comply with the safety requirements set out by the regulator‚ which has rescinded a suspension notice it issued to the rail services provider a week ago. Herron said that on the one hand‚ he was relieved that a total shutdown of Metrorail services had been avoided‚ which would have been a disaster for the city and for the hundreds of thousands of passengers who relied on the service‚ despite its state of crisis‚ for their daily commute. “On the other hand‚ the safety concerns and service conditions that led the Rail Safety Regulator to issue Prasa with a notice of intention to withdraw its operating permit prevail. Those unsafe and horrifying conditions have not been resolved overnight and remain...
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