Slowly, slowly getting back on track
New Prasa management are getting to grips with a truly monumental task after years of staggering neglect and criminality ruined the railways
It is early 2010. We are standing on one of Joburg’s yellow mine dumps, looking south. In the middle distance is the magnificent FNB Stadium that will host the Fifa World Cup final. In the foreground is an elegantly arched concrete bridge carrying the shining rails, masts and overhead cables of the revamped 14km rail link between central Joburg and Nasrec. After 18 months of construction at a cost of R70m (2025 value: R140m), the new line is ready to ferry more than 20,000 passengers in peak hour.
Nasrec was one of 50 stations refurbished by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) for the World Cup. After the competition, said then deputy transport minister Jeremy Cronin, the station would serve the stadium but also enable citizens of nearby Soweto, deliberately placed far from the CBD during apartheid, to be quickly linked to economic hubs. “As we’re launching this, we’re transforming the very geography of South Africa. We’re actually democratising space.”..
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