ANA reports that the resumption of Metrorail services on Thursday morning was marred when a train came off the rails along the notorious Central Line in Cape Town.
The train service on the line had been suspended for nearly two weeks because of safety concerns sparked by the shooting of a security guard on the platform of the Chris Hani Station. The United National Transport Union (UNTU) reported: “Early this morning an empty train with a train driver, metro guard and a section manager went out on the route to do a final check before the service resumes this morning. This train derailed just after 04:00 between the Netreg Station and the Heideveld Station. Nobody was injured, but the train has been severely damaged.” The derailment was apparently caused by the absence of “rail clips” that had been stolen. UNTU’s Steve Harris said that as a result of the derailment the Central Line “has once again been suspended due to the vandalism of infrastructure”. The incident on Thursday in Cape Town comes after another Prasa train derailed in Germiston in Gauteng on Wednesday, where it was established that the rail clips had also been stolen.
- Read this report in full at The Citizen
- Read too, Metrorail suffers setback after train derails on Cape Town’s Central Line, at Cape Times
- And also, Train derailment scuppers plans to reopen Cape Town central line, at EWN
- As well as, Vandalism causes train derailment in Germiston, at EWN
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page