Mitchels Plain line set for May reopening - Prasa

THE Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) aims to restore the Mitchells Plain line by May following space constraints on the Central Line.

- THEOLIN TEMBO [e-mail]

The Cape Town to Chris Hani line, also known as the Central Line, was last fully functional to November 2019 before services were suspended due to vandalism and cable theft.

The line was also affected by illegal electrical connections and encroachment onto the railway alignment.

Last week, Prasa tested the line with the new blue and white state-of-the-art trains known as Isitimela Sabantsi from Cape Town to Chris Hani, one of the end points of the Central Line.

Metrorail Western Cape Manager, Raymond Maseko said: “We were able to recover the line from Cape Town to Langa, and indeed we needed to sound a solution for that particular problem.”

“Then in 2022, we grew the line all the way to Nyanga, then after Nyanga there was a problem with people that had built on top of the railway tracks between Nyanga and Philippi.”

“There was nothing we could do, we were just not focused on the direction that line was going.”

Kalmer said that she did not stop but continued with her race because there were other people who could run with Salie.