http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/articl ... -Metrorail
Heads may roll at Western Cape Metrorail
Feb 11, 2011 1:25 PM | By Sapa
Heads may roll at Metrorail following last week's problems with Cape Town trains, warns group chief executive of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), Lucky Montana.
He said he had given Metrorail Western Cape regional manager Lindelo Matya and other senior officials until Wednesday to file written reports on their role in what happened. This could be followed by disciplinary action, restructuring of the management team in the province, or dismissals of those found to have been negligent.
"I'm going to look seriously at the reports to see who failed to so their work," he said on Friday.
Montana said last week's problems -- a shortage of train sets, leading to cancellations, delays and massive crowding -- were due to neither the weather nor the fact that some rolling stock dated back to the 1950s. "The problem last week was the failure of our team here in the Western Cape to follow the maintenance programme in a proper fashion," he said.
He said regional management should never have allowed a situation in which 14 of the province's 95 train sets were out of action for maintenance at the same time. By Thursday, he said, 10 of the 14 were back in service. Montana said commuters' "anger and outrage" at last week's problems had been justified. "I think they [management] took their eyes off the ball," he said.
He said he had instructed that maintenance should be done at night and over weekends if necessary.
Last year Montana removed then-Metrorail Western Cape regional manager Stephen Ngobeni from his post after Ngobeni allegedly gave incorrect information to his boss about a bonus offer to strikers.
Montana, who was speaking after a meeting with a delegation from Cosatu Western Cape, said he agreed with the union federation that rail services in the province and the rest of the country had to work efficiently. In the meeting, it had been agreed that Prasa would explore the possibility of using Autopax buses to relieve congestion on some Western Cape commuter lines. A team had been set up to look at this, and related issues such as temporary licenses, a depot, and cost. Autopax is Prasa's road transport division, operating the Translux and City-to-City lines.
Montana said Metrorail had in December last year introduced a systematic maintenance regime to ensure reliability and improved performance from a fleet of coaches that was on average about 40 years old. Metrorail was also refurbishing coaches, and would complete another 500 to 600 this financial year. He said there was no question that existing rolling stock had reached the end of its life and should be replaced.
There was a need to proceed "with speed" with the acquisition of new, reliable trains, and a modern signalling system that would allow tighter scheduling.
