By Umamah Bakharia 

The Passenger Railway Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has added 100 new trains to the country’s public transport fleet.

The locomotive set unveiled by the transport department is locally made by, Gibela Consortium and has state-of-the-art climate control and CCTV features with a speed of 120 km per hour and a capacity for 1 200 passengers.

“As we celebrate the 100th train set – we recognize the milestone as a giant leap towards [an] affordable integrated public transport network,” said transport minister Fikile Mbalula.

He adds that the trains were supposed to be delivered in 2020, but due to the Covid-19 lockdown it was delayed.

For years, South Africa’s railway system has been in a dire state due to vandalism and lack of maintenance as its infrastructure has been ageing including its old and non-functional Metrorail trains.

“Gradually we have to recover those rails, in fact when we looked at it we said we must fix 10 lines,” says Prasa board chair Leonard Ramatlakane.

The trains are currently operational in the Atteridgeville and Mabopane railway lines as well as in Cape Town. The next in line to receive the new trains will be Naledi in Soweto.

The launch of the trains comes at a time when South Africa is facing continuous loadshedding that can affect the travel of the trains. However, Mbalula assures that the trains are hydrogen solution based.