Koena Moabelo
In April 2021, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) devised an Accelerated Corridor approach in recovering services focusing on the top ten high volume passenger rail corridors for initial resumption of services.
This follows a sustained theft and vandalism of rail assets have disrupted train services across the province.
A phased-in approach in recovering lines is based on the extent of damage and time it would take to rehabilitate the damaged infrastructure. This means corridors will be brought back into service in phases. These were mainly selected based on the demand for services, the extent of damage and the time required to recover and rehabilitate the infrastructure.
Where most vandalism and theft were experienced, the rail agency was able to run a limited services using diesel locomotives.
Currently PRASA is working on four priority corridors which will be ready to run train services by end of October.
Against this backdrop, the rail agency has announced the closure of three lines in the Gauteng region. These are:
> Pienaarspoort to Pretoria - 23 May until August 2022
 > Naledi to JHB - 23 May until September 2022
 > Leralla to Elandsfontein - 30 May until October 2022
Termination of services is necessary to allow for the rehabilitation and restoration of the electrical cables (OHTE) and traction substations that were vandalized or stolen.
Notwithstanding the cancelation of security contracts, the situation was further exacerbated by travel bans imposed during Level 5 hard Lockdown which left the infrastructure vulnerable.