ANA reports that the City of Cape Town said on Tuesday it would be appointing a team of rail professionals to assist its transport directorate with business plans to take over passenger rail management from the national government.  

It said it was evaluating and assessing four tenders for the exercise and that the rail experts, once appointed, would develop a feasible and incremental plan for the city to assume the urban rail function from the state-owned Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa).  The city council approved the business plan in October 2017 and its structured and incremental format will allow Cape Town to acquire the necessary skills and develop additional capacity to ensure the long-term sustainability of the rail service.  The city council will announce the winner of the tender once the supply chain management process was concluded and it was satisfied that there was a preferred service provider who would be able to meet the criteria or scope of work.  “The assignment of the urban rail service will have long-term implications for residents and commuters,” said mayoral committee member for transport Felicity Purchase.

• Read the full original of the report on this story at The Citizen

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page