South Africa sets aside $89m for Cape Town railway line upgrade

[John Ashworth]

South Africa sets aside US $89m for Cape Town railway line upgrade

The government of South Africa through the Department of Transport has set aside US $89m to repair and upgrade the railway line Cape Town . The repair works are expected to be conducted in phases with the completion date set to April 2021...

substations would be repaired or rebuilt according to its current condition while overhead electrical lines will be replaced and the signaling will also be modernized. In addition as part of the plan to prevent vandalism, the transport department announced that it will also construct a four-meter-high concrete barrier along the line and also install security cameras to aid in guarding the line and the substations.

The railway line which used to serve Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, two of Cape Town’s biggest areas has not been operational since November 2019... PRASA has spent about US $10.8m on substations and overhead lines on the central line alone while trying to repair but the infrastructure has been vandalized beyond repair...