Rail Enforcement Unit finally hits the tracks

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Cape Town - The Rail Enforcement Unit was launched by Transport Minister Blade Nzimande on Saturday, but the City of Cape Town will also launch the unit during a “special ceremony” today. At the launch, Nzimande said Prasa had promised to undertake extensive infrastructure work to make sure there was a better rail system in the province. He said the burning of trains and vandalism of transport infrastructure was a challenge. He said president Cyril Ramaphosa launched a multibillion-rand train-manufacturing factory in Gauteng last week. “We can’t bring them (new trains) to the Western Cape if the there is a continuation of train burnings in the province.” Up to 100 officers have undergone training and are ready to assist the existing security services. The launch of the unit comes on the back of a report by the Railway Safety Regulator highlighting crimes reported by the Passenger Rail Agency SA (Prasa). The report raised concern among passenger advocacy groups which reiterated the call for a suspension of Prasa’s permit.

According to the report, 50% of malicious damage reports in the rail industry were reports by Prasa. It also indicated that of the 73% of personal safety incidents reported at train stations, 42% were in the Western Cape.

The province also recorded the greatest number of assault incidents for personal safety on trains in 2017/18.

Passenger advocacy groups accused the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) of turning a blind eye to the “real facts”.

United Commuters Voice spokesperson Joao Jardim said: “The RSR is the custodian of railway safety and is tasked to oversee the safety of SA Railways which is, in the main, Transnet Freight Rail and Prasa/Metrorail. Looking at the contribution statistics it is clear that the RSR is not doing what its mandated to do.”

Jardim said drawing from the report the Railway Safety Regulator should have withdrawn Metrorail’s safety permit about three years ago.

“Yet it has continued to issue safety permits even though trains consistently fail routine checks. RSR continues to fail to carry out its mandate when it conducts inspections, not to mention the audits,” he said.

Meanwhile, #UniteBehind said it noted the report, but the problem was that the majority of crime incidents went unreported.

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