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GroundUp reports that the City of Cape Town has approved a Rail Business Plan for devolving operation of the city’s Metrorail services from the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) to the municipality.
The City will now submit a memorandum to the National Department of Transport requesting that rail services be devolved. According to Mayco member for urban mobility Rob Quintas, devolution will only be possible with funding from National Treasury, which will have to take the form of a multi-year funding agreement. The City’s long-term mobility plan envisages devolution being completed by 2028, but Quintas says the timeline “will ultimately be determined by the national government” and is outside the City’s control.
Calls for devolution follow many years of deteriorating passenger rail services, culminating in a near-total collapse in 2021. Earlier this year, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said the recovery of the Central Line – Cape Town’s “most important rail corridor” – had cost about R1.3-billion. According to Quintas, devolving Metrorail will benefit “lower-income households who travel long distances from their homes, work and school”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Liezl Human at GroundUp
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