By PETER DUBE

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Missing railway overhead wires stripped by copper cable thieves mark the better part of lines in South Africa's major cities serviced by Metrorail train operations.

In some sections of the railway lines, short hanging overhead cables appear to have been spared by the criminals.

At most railway stations in Gauteng, ticket booths and toilets have had their roofs, doors and window frames ripped off, and whatever was inside has been stolen or vandalised.

The ruins resemble debris in a war zone.

Inside, the waiting rooms are tiny and empty plastic packs left by drug users, cigarette stubs and used condoms are strewn all over the place. Most of them have become a haven of criminal activities especially the thriving drug trade.

There are overgrown weeds on station platforms resembling a deserted town.

Eight months ago, most of these facilities were fully functional serving passengers daily, but today only bricks and rubble are left.

The onset of the lockdown in March to contain the spread of coronavirus led to train services, both passenger and freight, being suspended.

The railway system is now teetering, close to a point of no return.

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), the state-owned enterprise that oversees Metrorail, withdrew security services at the start of the lockdown, a move which paved the way for unabated vandalism.

Now, the rusty railway tracks attest that it has been a long time since the wheels of trains last rolled over.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, train services were the most frequented by daily commuters as it was the cheapest mode of transport.

Metrorail boasted of being “responsible for transporting up to two million passengers daily in the following operational areas: Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape”.

LEFT STRANDED

But today, millions of passengers who commuted longer distances to work daily have been left stranded.

“I had to resign from my job because a large chunk of my salary was going to bus fare since the trains are not moving,” said Puledi Makwetla who used to pay R30 ($1.9) Metrorail return tickets every day from Pretoria to Johannesburg.

Now that he would require R100 ($6.3) per day using a bus or commuter omnibus, he says it “didn’t make sense” to continue with his job since train services stopped.

“I’m still looking for a job here in Pretoria,” he said.

It is now uncertain when the collapsed train system will resume operations.

According to rail engineer Willem Sprong, it would take at least two and half years for passenger train services to operate normally in Gauteng alone.

“To repair just the overhead cables will cost about R4 million ($254,000) per km,” said Mr Sprong, according to Times Live.

“There is regulation that prevents you from reusing overhead masts that are vandalised or broken. You need to cast a new foundation, put a new mast.

“With the current procurement process, to import that transformer it will take you almost two years at a cost of about R6 million ($381,000). It will take about 12 months just to go through the design, the procurement phase and get a contractor. I would be very surprised to see an electric train running in the next 30 months.”

GOVERNMENT ATTENTION

Even before the lockdown, the dilapidated railway infrastructure had caught the attention of the government.

In the run-up to the 2019 elections, President Cyril Ramaphosa used a Metrorail train to appreciate first-hand the daily struggles of passengers.

Many saw it as a political gimmick and a campaign strategy to solicit votes.

After admitting that a lot needed to be done to improve passenger railway services, President Ramaphosa is still talking about the same problems several months later.

“The continued damage, sabotage, theft and vandalism of rail infrastructure in one of the worst forms of economic crimes in our country,” he said last week.

“It has a direct impact and bearing on the lives of millions of South Africans who rely on commuter rail services to travel to work and to study. We are taking decisive measures to improve security on these rail lines; the National Treasury has granted approval of R900 million ($57 million) for the implementation of the Prasa Security Plan to combat theft and vandalism of the rail infrastructure.”

The only addition to what he said last year is that there are plans to include the use of drones.

“Part of the plan is to immediately appoint security personnel and to deploy remotely piloted aircraft systems to conduct virtual patrols of high-risk infrastructure. This capability will work together with specialised investigations and armed response,” the president said.

What remains to be known is when all this will be implemented.

However, limited operations of diesel engine-pulled passenger trains have been opened within Pretoria.

Despite passengers still stranded in most metros, a R2.8 billion ($178 million) Rail Management and Train Control Centre has been opened at Bellevue in Cape Town, as part of Prasa’s programme to modernise its signalling and infrastructure.

But inter-city rail services for passengers remain suspended despite the fact that trains that ply long-distance routes are diesel engines.