{"id":229521,"date":"2022-06-22T20:06:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T18:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/train-service-on-track-to-resume-after-several-months-in-parts-of-eastern-cape\/"},"modified":"2022-06-22T20:06:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T18:06:17","slug":"train-service-to-resume-in-parts-of-eastern-cape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/train-service-to-resume-in-parts-of-eastern-cape\/","title":{"rendered":"Train service to resume in parts of Eastern Cape"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A train standing at a station in Kariega, Eastern Cape before all services were halted in January due to severe vandalism. Photo: Thamsanqa Mbovane<\/p>\n

Nearly seven months after train services across the Eastern Cape were ground to a halt, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) says it will resume operations using diesel trains on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A few months ago, we reported that all trains had stopped operating<\/a> between Kariega, Gqeberha and East London since 7 January. PRASA said the services were suspended due to \u201csevere vandalism [cable theft] which rendered the network unable to operate\u201d.<\/p>\n

This week, the rail agency announced, in a statement, that it will be using diesel locomotives as an interim measure to resume operations in parts of the province. As a result, the province\u2019s 739 PRASA employees have been doing \u201crefresher training\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to PRASA, only one diesel train will be in service in the mornings and one in the afternoons which will run in central East London and in parts of Gqeberha.<\/p>\n

It is yet to be seen whether hundreds of commuters who previously used the service will return when it resumes. However trains remain the cheapest mode of transport in the metro. A ticket between Kariega and Gqeberha costs R9, while a bus fee is R20 and a taxi R25.<\/p>\n

Resident Thanduxolo Mntakwende from Kariega said most residents would welcome the resumption of the service as long as it runs smoothly. \u201cPreviously we got stuck on our way to work and other people signed warning letters while others were fired for being late,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

PRASA national spokesperson Andiswa Makanda said the rail agency plans to reintroduce services one corridor at a time for now. She said these trains will be used while repair works continue on other rail lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are recovering our services corridor-by-corridor. Train drivers are currently doing training classes in East London and Gqeberha. The testing of the operational lines commenced last Monday and took seven days to complete as part of passenger and employee safety,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A train standing at a station in Kariega, Eastern Cape before all services were halted in January due to severe vandalism. Photo: Thamsanqa Mbovane Nearly seven months after train services across the Eastern Cape were ground to a halt, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) says it will resume operations using diesel trains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-229521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/train-service-to-resume-in-parts-of-eastern-cape.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}