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Planned: new speed trains project

20 Oct 2011

Government departments and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) will convene soon to discuss a high-speed train between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. The planned workshop will look for ways to reduce the carnage on the province's roads and deal with traffic congestion between the two cities. At the workshop, Prasa is expected to unveil a plan to launch a Durban-Pietermaritzburg express train, as well as a Durban-Johannesburg speed train.

The agency is also expected to reveal the cost of the project - expected to run into billions of rands - and its funding model.

Peak-hour congestion on the Pietermaritzburg route increased dramatically since the city was declared the capital of the province. The provincial legislature and headquarters of all government departments are now located in Pietermaritzburg. According to national Transport Minister Sbusiso Ndebele, who supports the project, the Durban-Gauteng corridor was the busiest in the southern hemisphere, both in value and tonnage.

Mxolisi Kaunda, chairperson of the transport portfolio committee, supports the project, as well: "We are worried about the volume of traffic on our roads," he said, adding that the committee is also "worried about the number of accidents. The injection of a speed train would make things easier and safer for everyone. We are very keen on this project," Kaunda said. Opposition parties, however, are skeptical. Radley Keys, the DA's local transport spokesperson, said that although an improved transport system in the province was to be welcomed, the DA was against what he called 'an elitist speed train'.

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