Stones Thrown at Trains in Cape Town

About 16 Gibela trains, also known as “Blue Trains”, have been sent for repairs after being damaged by people throwing stones at trains in Cape Town.

• Dozens of Blue Trains have been sent for repairs after being damaged by people throwing stones at trains in Cape Town.
• Earlier in October, Metrorail said that 36 of its trains had been damaged by stones.
• Metrorail Western Cape has condemned the spike in these incidents.
• Transport movement #UniteBehind has supported a call for more security along the railway lines where there’s been a spike in stone-throwing in recent weeks.

About 16 Gibela trains, also known as the “Blue Trains”, have been taken out of service for repairs after being damaged by people throwing stones at trains in Cape Town.

Earlier this month, the rail agency stated that 36 trains had been damaged by stone-throwing. Metrorail Western Cape has condemned the spike in these acts of malicious damage to its property.

When this reporter was on the train on the Central Line in Cape Town last week, he witnessed groups of young boys throwing stones at the train between the Netreg and Heideveld train stations, and between the Nyanga and Philippi train stations.

Commuters inside the train had to duck under the seats. Though none of the stones penetrated the windows, there was panic and frustration among commuters. “It’s a concern that in this day and age there are still people who throw stones at a train,” said one commuter who only identified himself as Mzwakhe. “Parents need to educate their children about the dangers of throwing stones.

“We did not have trains for a very long time and now there are people damaging them. Metrorail should deploy security guards at these hotspots because this happens daily,” he said.

Lines affected include Cape Town to Simons Town via Fish Hoek, Cape Town to Retreat, Cape Town to Bellville and the Cape Town Central Line to Nolungile in Khayelitsha.

“We have experienced a surge in stone-throwing incidents in the Western Cape, resulting in damaged windows and the temporary shortage of operational train sets,” said Metrorail spokesperson Zinobulali Mihi in a statement on 15 October.

Metrorail is working closely with police and communities to reduce these incidents, she said.

Mihi urged people to report any attempts of vandalism to Metrorail’s Cape Town call centre at 080 0656 463.

Signal equipment failure at Wynberg train station earlier this month also caused disruptions on the Southern Line. Services from Kenilworth have not been running as usual. Instead of having a train every 20 minutes on this line, only two trains run every two hours.

Gibela Trains Rail Consortium has been contracted to supply 600 X’trapolis Mega Electric-Multiple Unit (EMU) train sets, each made up of six coaches, by 2030 at a cost of R53-billion. More than 240 trains have been manufactured to date. Countrywide, 112 of these trains have already been rolled out.

PRASA spokesperson Andiswa Makanda said Gibela was appointed as the preferred bidder out of seven proposals. She said Gibela was expected to maintain the trains until 2035, after that “PRASA will take over the full maintenance as part of the contractual agreement”.

Phelisa Dlangamandla, organiser for commuter activist organisation #UniteBehind, supported the call to have security guards stationed at stone-throwing hotspots. She suggested that the City of Cape Town’s law enforcement agencies “step in to safeguard our trains”.

“Commuter rail is the most important form of public transport and it is only recently being revitalised. We cannot afford to take a step back,” she said.

“This issue highlights a larger problem: PRASA has not modernised its depots for decades. The new trains require upgraded maintenance facilities and this programme has been delayed for a long period. If the depots had been modernised, would the service disruptions have been as severe?” asked Dlangamandla.

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