The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has reported that more than half of its rail network has been recovered, with 80% scheduled to be restored by the end of the financial year. The agency has spent R4.6 billion and created 6,000 jobs while recovering its rail network, which was largely destroyed during the Covid-19 pandemic. In October, Prasa announced that R50 billion would be spent over the next three years to modernise the passenger rail network, covering rolling stock, infrastructure investments, depot modernisation, walling, station modernisation, electrical infrastructure, signalling telecommunications, and digitisation.
During the pandemic lockdown, much of Prasad's infrastructure came under siege from criminals searching for scrap materials. According to the Railway Safety Regulator's State of Safety Report 2022/23, an astonishing 8,643 security-related incidents were reported in the past year, 97% of which were theft and vandalism. Prasa has been working to refurbish and rebuild train stations across South Africa that were either in an alarming state of disrepair or destroyed.
The agency has also begun rehabilitating badly vandalised substations on the Randfontein-Johannesburg line and plans to run the new X’Trapolis Mega electric trains on most of its recovered lines. Prasa has transported over 60 million passengers since the corridors' recovery began in 2021.
In Gauteng, Prasa has recovered seven commuter rail lines: Mabopane-Pretoria, De Wildt-Pretoria, Pienaarspoort-Pretoria, Pretoria-Kaalfontein, Leralla-Germiston, Germiston-Johannesburg, and Naledi-Johannesburg. It aims to restore 80% of the corridors by the end of this financial year, which means about by the end of February 2024.
Prasa has a primary mandate to provide passenger rail transport services in urban areas and for long-distance. It is planned to resume the Durban to Pinetown and De Wildt to Belle Ombre routes before the end of this financial year.
