City Council’s offer to accept responsibility for Cape Town’s Commuter rail service
30 October 2017
The City Council’s offer to accept responsibility for Cape Town’s Commuter rail service is to be welcomed but it is a huge challenge and the City does not yet have the skills in place to manage the system.
“It has been clear for some time that Metrorail is not winning and the service is declining, so the City had no option but to step in,” said Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Chamber.
She said the City had wisely decided that any takeover, if approved at national level, would have to take place in stages.
“The first stage should be to stop the vandalism and the copper theft and this is something the City is well equipped to do. Its Copperheads anti-metal theft unit has performed well and has a good understanding of the problem. I see no reason why the Metro Police, working with the Copperheads, cannot arrest the ongoing destruction of trainset, the signals system and other infrastructure.”