Pretoria - Work to repair the Mabopane rail corridor has recorded significant progress as workers toiled around the clock to bring it to completion.
The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) said marked progress on the project was made in the last week of November and early December.
Key milestones included the rehabilitation of the overhead electrical lines that were vandalised and stolen.
Prasa launched a multi-million rand refurbishment project in August to the dilapidated network, which, when functional, was used by thousands of commuters daily.
The rehabilitation followed massive looting of facilities and vandalising of the infrastructure, which inadvertently left commuters stranded after trains were grounded.
The vandalism was attributed to the absence of security to patrol the railway infrastructure, not only this route but across the country.
In this regard, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula previously told Parliament that Prasa would be deploying 5 000 guards sourced from private service providers to safeguard railway infrastructure.
Mbalula said, at the time, that top priorities were the Mabopane corridor as well as the central line in Cape Town.
He said Prasa had put in place a detailed recovery plan aimed at rehabilitating and replacing the stolen and vandalised infrastructure, including the stolen overhead traction equipment, signalling, substations, perway, and stations.
He said the additional measure to improve security at the stations was the construction of concrete walls along the identified corridors, reinforced with an electric fence.
On Wednesday, Prasa said completion of work at 14 substations and successfully running both the old and new trains between Mabopane and Pretoria was in progress.
It said the technical team had submitted the safety declaration for the tracks and the electrical systems to the Railway Safety Regulator.
“The team is now preparing to submit the declaration for the signalling system to enable the regulator to issue the ‘no objection notice’, leading
to the next phases of trial-runs, off-peak operations, and finally, a full commercial permit to operate the new trains.
“The technical team is pulling extra hours for the resumption of the much-needed services on the Mabopane corridor, in time for peak demand, despite missing the end of November 2021 deadline.”
Restoring services on the network faced difficulties at various stages of the project, and these challenges included the strike in the metal industry in October, the subsequent rolling power outages, and the unpredictable heavy rainfall experienced by Gauteng.
The rain, Prasa said, resulted in the delay in the completion of the project. “Despite all these challenges, the technical team was resilient, optimistic, and remains determined to see the project to its completion.
“A catch-up plan is currently in place and the team further anticipates that a full commercial service could launch in the second week of January, coinciding with the resumption of economic activities following the December holidays.
Pretoria News