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Capetonians living in suburbs serviced by Metrorail’s Southern Line are returning to using the train after years of faulty or non-existent service.

Daily commuters using the Southern Line told GroundUp service on the Southern Line between Cape Town and Fish Hoek has improved significantly over the last two years, with new trains that run more frequently and on time, improved safety, cheap tickets, and more staff visibility at stations.

Three new train sets were added to the Southern Line at the beginning of March, reducing the waiting time between trains from 45 to 20 minutes, according to Metrorail spokesperson Zinobulali Mihi. Mihi however failed to answer Groundup’s questions over whether the new train sets had been acquired, or whether they had been in storage, and what improvements on the line had allowed additional train sets to run.

According to numbers provided by PRASA for ticket sales on the Southern Line between Cape Town and Retreat, the number of sales has more than doubled from 2022 to 2023.

In the 2022/2023 financial year (1 March 2022 to 28 February 2023), there were 1.7 million tickets sold between Cape Town and Retreat via Wynberg. From 1 March to 31 December 2023, this increased to 2.6 million. Figures for ticket sales for the entire 2023/2024 financial year have not yet been made available.

However, this is a far cry from the 19.3 million tickets that used to be sold for this section of the line a decade ago, during the 2013/2014 financial year.

While there were more than 6.5 million tickets sold for the Simon’s Town to Retreat journey each year from 2013/2014 to 2015/2016, sales dropped steadily to a mere 650,000 in 2022/2023, with just 25,000 tickets sold for this section of line from 1 March to 31 December 2023.

The Northern Line from Bellville to Cape Town, the Central Line to Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, and the Cape Flats Line are still not fully operational “as most of the infrastructure has been either stolen or vandalised”.

Some of the railway lines have also become mini-towns as hundreds of households turned the train tracks into their home in 2020. Most of these track dwellers have however been relocated by Prasa, but there are still some remaining.

Getting the Southern Line back to normal is wonderful news, and will help a little with the congestion on our roads. I still have fond memories of taking the train every morning and afternoon, and save for a few nutty folks yelling profanities and scripture, it was often the highlight of my day.

Duping a wealthy heiress into marriage might have put an end to my public transport days, but the Cape Town train lines are as much a part of the local experience as a dik gatsby and unpredictable weather. I do miss the acrid smell of a train screeching its way into Cape Town station.

[source:groundup]