Metrorail safety concerns addressed but vandalism derails services

Metrorail senior management and the union representing staff agreed to resume services but ongoing vandalism stalls process.

Regional manager for Metrorail, Richard Walker says after extensive talks with the union representing Metrorail staff and senior management at Prasa, an agreement has been reached to resume operations on the central line.

The central line has been suspended since last week due to attacks on staff at the Chris Hani station in Khayelitsha.

The line needed to be inspected before services are resumed on Wednesday morning but they found that there has been vandalism at their substation in Bonteheuwel and Nyanga.

The extent of the vandalism means that trains will not be operation on the central line.

We had additional vandalism at the Nyanga substation and that resulted in us not having power between Nyanga and Mitchells Plain as well as Khayelitsha.

Richard Walker, Metrorail Regional Manager

The engineers and technical team are out there at Nyanga to do the necessary repair work so that we can reintroduce services later this afternoon.

Richard Walker, Metrorail Regional Manager

Walker says they are working with Saps and law enforcement to better protect Bonteheuwel and Nyanga.

He says they are working on closing the whole area with a concrete wall and tenders are already out to get the best service provider to do the job.

We are quite positive that out of these engagements and interventions will get better results.

Richard Walker, Metrorail Regional Manager

We are actively busy to ensure that we put the necessary measures in place to address the challenges we have in that area.

Richard Walker, Metrorail Regional Manager

To hear the rest of this interview with Metrorail's Richard Walker, listen below:

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