The strike continues - and so does the wanton destruction of railway property...
Last week Wednesday it was the derailment of petrol train 1510 near Shallcross on the Natal Main Line after the track had been tampered with.*
During the same week there were further derailments - near Witbank and Empangeni -*under suspicious circumstances, and on Tuesday this week the privately operated (by Lennings, I think) SPENO rail grinding train derailed at Tinley Manor on the Natal North Coast after rail clips had been removed from about 70m of track on a sharp 40km/h curve.*
The train was being transferred from Empangeni to Mason's Mill at the time, so was running at normal train speed. *
The entire train derailed and some of the vehicles turned over - damage is estimated at between R23million and R40million, but the real problem is that this critical piece of track maintenance equipment will be out of service for at least six months, so the effect will be felt countrywide for the next year or more.
Transnet has since issued a directive that due to the prevailing unsafe conditions, no passenger trains will be permitted to run over its network until such time as the strike has been resolved, perhaps vindicating the decision taken by PRASA two weeks ago to suspend all Shosholoza Meyl train services.*
I believe that a dim view has also been taken officially on the transfer of the Rovos Rail trains from Kimberley to Johannesburg (did they ever reach Pretoria?) earlier this week, even though they were running as empty stock and hauled by private locomotives.
A further attempt at sabotage was thwarted when a security patrol found that track clips had been removed on a critical curve between Isipingo and Umbogintwini on the Natal South Coast yesterday morning.*
Although Metrorail services had already been suspended, TFR continues to operate timber trains to SAICCOR at Umkomaas on this PRASA route, and these were no doubt the target of this criminal activity.*
TFR has announced a R100 000 reward for any information leading to the successful prosecution of anyone responsible for these acts - nothing of this scale has been seen since the 1989 railway strikes.
