Prasa's Montana: SA rail fails to meet international standards

According to an IOL report, the state and safety of South Africa's decades-old passenger trains was discussed at a public services select committee briefing. "Metrorail trains fail in all respects to meet international standards, except their heating system," Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) chief executive Lucky Montana told MPs.

This included modern safety features such as "automatic train protection" systems and the "enduring crashworthiness" of the country's passenger coaches - almost all of which are between 20 and 50 years old.

Montana said that many were asking why new coaches were not being bought immediately. "We can go and buy the train overseas... and we can have them next year," he said, "but we've made a choice... We must use this investment to revitalise our rail engineering industry." The coaches should therefore be manufactured in South Africa. Montana said that the first train is expected to "roll out of the new manufacturing plant in 2014/15." The programme would create "about 65 000 jobs" and would also provide an opportunity to train a new generation of railway engineers and artisans, IOL reports.

Read the full article on www.iol.co.za.