Passenger train options

Roman avril said:
No. I'm talking about proper intercity trains. Not tourism type of affair. And why aren't commuter trains practical?
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They used to have it. When I was studying (2000-ish) one of my friends took the train home from Potch to East London a few times.
Even longer ago, in the 80s we took the train from Cradock in EC to Johannesburg.

I can't say with certainty what went wrong. Just general neglect of infrastructure due to incompetence? Or was it malicious due to some government officials being invested in road transport as some conspiracy theories claim?
 
D said:
It's possible, but there will always be so many obstacles in the way. Here is just one example of many!

au.finance.yahoo.com

Raccoon rescued after private parts freeze to railway line in -12C Georgia

A procedure using hot water allowed the animal to break free
au.finance.yahoo.com au.finance.yahoo.com

A male raccoon was rescued after its private parts became frozen to a railway track in southern America.

A railway worker was braving -12C conditions in Cochran, Georgia, when he and a colleague came across the distressed animal on the line. It was seen straddling the rail with its testicles stuck to the metal.

Neil Mullis used warm water and a shovel to dislodge the raccoon in a process that took five minutes – after which the animal ran free.

He told local media: “I poured the warm water under his bottom while a co-worker worked the shovel under his butt to try and break him loose.

“After about five minutes of slowly working him loose, he was free. He jumped off the rail and ran in the woods, never looking back.”
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No comment
 
D said:
This comes to mind because it's a pretty big deal due to the laws of physics:

Spain investigates corrupt 'too-tall trains' sale, while SA has taken no action

The Spanish authorities are investigating corruption at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa). Meanwhile South African law enforcement – the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) – have taken no action for five years...
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za

Also, thanks to inspector @Gordon_R the following info has also come to light:

View attachment 1474529
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Those loco's are now mine trains in Zambia.
 
Roman avril said:
No. I'm talking about proper intercity trains. Not tourism type of affair. And why aren't commuter trains practical?
Click to expand...
Cause they are essentially rolling crime hot-spots. Imagine there are 5 people in a carriage willing, able and ready to pull a knife on anyone in their general vicinity.

Security guards taking bribes to usher people into select spaces.

You would need security to protect train personnel, and armed security at stations.

People relieving themselves and being high or drunk and disorderly, at the station, and in transit.

How would you explain someone getting raped on a train?

All of this, because you are a sitting duck in a metal container traveling at 45km/h. During the day time. Once the sun sets, that's when the real fun begins.

Oh, and forget about breaking even, between the theft, vandalism and fasicination with fire... i hope you have insurance from God himself.

South Africa is not a "practical" reasonable country. It's feral at the worst of times, and wild at the best of times.
 
We've taken the Prasa train from Cape Town central to Kalk Bay quite a few times. Most of the time you get one of the new blue trains, but I've been unlucky and gotten the old yellow ones every time. Apparently they use them on Saturdays only for some reason.

The trip is quite fun and once you get to Muizenberg it's very pretty riding right next to the ocean.

We use it for leisure though. Wouldn't rely on it for say trip to work and back.

Apparently security is quite present on the new ones so hopefully they will not get burnt, but reliability is an issue to make them get used way more often. They need to be on time.
 
D said:
Private companies may make a difference in future.

Transnet turning to private partners to run South Africas ports and railways

Transnet turning to private partners to run South Africas ports and railways State-owned Transnet is increasingly turning to private partners to help expand and improve its operations — a key driver of the nation’s economy.
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
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Why aren't there more any way? I remember they tried to sell blue train but no one was interested
 
TofuMofu said:
We've taken the Prasa train from Cape Town central to Kalk Bay quite a few times. Most of the time you get one of the new blue trains, but I've been unlucky and gotten the old yellow ones every time. Apparently they use them on Saturdays only for some reason.

The trip is quite fun and once you get to Muizenberg it's very pretty riding right next to the ocean.

We use it for leisure though. Wouldn't rely on it for say trip to work and back.

Apparently security is quite present on the new ones so hopefully they will not get burnt, but reliability is an issue to make them get used way more often. They need to be on time.
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Western Cape remember is a different province dominated by mixed and whites. Different characters to blacks in gauteng or kzn.
 
MagNorthDigital said:
Cause they are essentially rolling crime hot-spots. Imagine there are 5 people in a carriage willing, able and ready to pull a knife on anyone in their general vicinity.

Security guards taking bribes to usher people into select spaces.

You would need security to protect train personnel, and armed security at stations.

People relieving themselves and being high or drunk and disorderly, at the station, and in transit.

How would you explain someone getting raped on a train?

All of this, because you are a sitting duck in a metal container traveling at 45km/h. During the day time. Once the sun sets, that's when the real fun begins.

Oh, and forget about breaking even, between the theft, vandalism and fasicination with fire... i hope you have insurance from God himself.

South Africa is not a "practical" reasonable country. It's feral at the worst of times, and wild at the best of times.
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I guess this is the reason why RR and blue train decided to focus on the wealthy. They won't sneak into the train stations or destroy the trains. Or start drama
 
Barbarian Conan said:
They used to have it. When I was studying (2000-ish) one of my friends took the train home from Potch to East London a few times.
Even longer ago, in the 80s we took the train from Cradock in EC to Johannesburg.

I can't say with certainty what went wrong. Just general neglect of infrastructure due to incompetence? Or was it malicious due to some government officials being invested in road transport as some conspiracy theories claim?
Click to expand...
I would not know. We was born when apartheid ended. You older generations should write a book on your lives in apartheid. So much knowledge us young ones don't know
 
Part of the problem is we need electricity to run trains. There's not a lot of that going around.

I do agree that it would be nice if it was a safe, pleasant and viable option to get on a train in the evening in PTA and arrive in CPT the next morning while you had some nice sleep and wifi etc.

There are millions of South Africans that could potentially afford that instead of a plane ticket, for example.
 
Bliksis said:
All talk. Not yet seeing any change. Still, stations, are burnt down, and buses not running.
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It will take time. People these days expect change fast. Remember they spent decades doing as they want. And they from EC, no law and order province. Old habits die hard.
 
netstrider said:
Part of the problem is we need electricity to run trains. There's not a lot of that going around.

I do agree that it would be nice if it was a safe, pleasant and viable option to get on a train in the evening in PTA and arrive in CPT the next morning while you had some nice sleep and wifi etc.

There are millions of South Africans that could potentially afford that instead of a plane ticket, for example.
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It's a disaster. We can deal with the infrastructure but the attitude of the population will make anything pointless. When I was in TUT in 2019,tje students burned a bus during protest then layer complaining they don't have transport travel between campuses. Fools, you burnt the bus, and stole class projectors. How do u ensure those behaviours aren't brought into your own private trains and not annoy customers
 
Roman avril said:
Polokwane. Mopedi thwi. English is not my mother's tongue
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Nice. Yeah, English ain't mine either :)

The thing with trains, they make a lot of sense, but you're never going to stop people from taking advantage of things they don't own.

You only really have 3 options. Land, Sea and Air. Air is scary for many people. Sea too. So that leaves train, bus and taxi.

I would say, the best (if you don't think about violence) is bus. It has all the benefits of taxi, but with more people, like a train.
 
MagNorthDigital said:
Nice. Yeah, English ain't mine either :)

The thing with trains, they make a lot of sense, but you're never going to stop people from taking advantage of things they don't own.

You only really have 3 options. Land, Sea and Air. Air is scary for many people. Sea too. So that leaves train, bus and taxi.

I would say, the best (if you don't think about violence) is bus. It has all the benefits of taxi, but with more people, like a train.
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So it all goes with your target market I assume. U go for the middle class traveller and above. If people pay a high price for something, they more likely to be careful with it.
Then there's the problem. There's not enough upper poor to middle class people are there? Especially for a regular service between the big cities
 
Roman avril said:
So it all goes with your target market I assume. U go for the middle class traveller and above. If people pay a high price for something, they more likely to be careful with it.
Then there's the problem. There's not enough upper poor to middle class people are there? Especially for a regular service between the big cities
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Nope, your target market is shrinking by the day. The population pyramid has flattened drastically over the last 30 years.

There are 2 other factors to consider when looking at this.

Availability and time

Your target market wants access to this service on a regular schedule, and that means more buses or trains along the same route. You obviously also have to make the trip more comfortable or beneficial than them driving themselves.

And time. This would actually be your biggest challenge. You would have to both insure a regular schedule and make it reasonably fast.

All of this, while keeping costs down and ticket prices marginally reasonable.

What is your plan with all of this information?
 
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