Cape Town likely to test takeover of Metrorail services

[Steve Appleton]

From Business Day, 16 February 2012, http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/C ... ?id=165011

Cape Town to test takeover of Metrorail.
Cape Town is likely to pilot the devolution of responsibility for the scheduling and regulation of commuter train services.
NICKY SMITH
Published: 2012/02/16 06:49:10 AM

SA’s public transport system is facing a revolution as the government prepares to transfer the management and planning of Metrorail commuter train services from the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (PRASA) to the largest cities. The National Land Transport Act of 2008 gives local government control of the transport services cities require, but analysts doubt they have the expertise to manage this.

Cape Town, where more than 60% of citizens rely on Metrorail for their daily transport needs, is likely to pilot the devolution of responsibility for the scheduling and regulation of commuter train services, Department of Transport director-general George Mahlalela said yesterday. He said SA would no longer have a national body determining municipalities’ public transport needs. "Cities will determine their own requirements. They will need, then, to be able to fund their own requirements. In the end, all subsidies, plans, regulations and operations will be localised."

Local government is synonymous with service delivery problems and municipalities are infamous for lacking the technical expertise to spend their budgets.

"The policy is fine, the implementation has to be handled by people who know what they are doing, and we don’t have people who know what they are doing," Vaughan Mostert, a transport specialist at the University of Johannesburg, said yesterday. "The municipalities have shown no competency with running their own bus services. I fail to see how they can make this work unless they can improve their management ability." There was no reason to believe Cape Town would do better than any African National Congress-led cities as it did not have a strong record in public transport, Dr Mostert said. "They were happy to let the private sector run buses, and now that they have started to become involved with a bus rapid transit programme, the city is experiencing some problems."

Western Cape transport MEC Robin Carlisle said the devolution of the rail service would be a "poisoned chalice" unless there was clarity on how much of the management functions were devolved to the cities and whether they could enter third-party agreements with private companies. "The rolling stock is very old, though it can be easily and cheaply rehabilitated. The signalling systems are okay, but the real problem is management," he said. "When you are a public entity, who (cares) if you are penalised for not delivering a service? This is why I say it’s a poisoned chalice if the city is running the service with the subsidy and no say in management."

Mr Carlisle said it was not clear how a city could manage a company "indirectly by subsidy" when it was not required to make a profit. "How effective is that subsidy to get performance?" If Cape Town was given a say in the management of the services, a "modest" R3bn-R4bn from the Treasury to refurbish the 40-year-old rolling stock, and the ability to boost the number of train sets to 140 from 87, it could add 500 000 rail users a day, Mr Carlisle said. "There is a great appetite for rail and in that environment you can push up fares and cut at least 20% off the operating costs."

Mr Mahlalela said the transfer of the management, scheduling and regulation of rail services to municipalities would be a process. "There is no deadline; it can’t be a big-bang approach." Municipalities will be helped where needed in modelling of public transport needs.

Devolving responsibility to Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane was complicated by the Gauteng network resembling that of a single megacity, Mr Mahlalela said. Deciding how the rail system would be transferred from Prasa to Johannesburg or the Gauteng provincial government was part of a study on an integrated transport plan for the next 25 years for Gauteng, he said.

By transferring the operation and scheduling to local authorities, it was hoped train delays, vandalism and cleanliness of trains could be better managed, Mr Mahlalela said. Cities would have a service agreement with PRASA, paid for largely from their share of the R6 bn annual subsidy the government provides for commuter rail transport, he said.

[Steve Appleton]

By transferring the operation and scheduling to local authorities, it was hoped train delays, vandalism and cleanliness of trains could be better managed, Mr Mahlalela said.

Really? Do the vandals and theives care about who owns or runs the infrastructure they attack? Can the municpalities protect these disbursed assets any better than PRASA does, given that the municipalities already battle witlh the protection and maintenance of their other infrastructural components like electric cables and traffic lights?

Will this make Metrorail services better and reduce the subsidies? I doubt that. What about PRASA's planned upgrade and re-equipment program? Will PRASA bother when there are rumours or plans that it will ultimately loose control of its investments?

[John Ashworth]

I don't know the specific South African dynamics, but it has certainly proved positive in UK where local metropolitan authorities have taken over, or taken a major role in running, suburban commuter services.