”To be quite honest, trains at one stage were unreliable,” says Leon Vender, settling back into the plush seats of the new Business Express, a spanking new train service launched last week by Metrorail.
While other commuters are battling the morning hell-run between Johannesburg and Pretoria, these commuters are sipping coffee and taking in the view.
”I used the railway in the apartheid time and I’m using it now. I will continue to use it,” said Vender (49), a production manager at a kitchen production company in Johannesburg.
You won’t find many fans of commuting by car on this train. The highway between the two cities has become an almost impassable obstacle for most of the day: if you don’t hit the road before 5am, you’re toast.
According to the Gauteng department of transport, approximately 180 000 cars travel every morning from Pretoria to Johannesburg and return in the evening.
Vender sold his car six months ago.
”If you don’t need a car at your workplace, why use a car?” he says. ”Why would you want to use a car? It’s crazy in traffic. We have comfortable seats, coffee, security … what more would you need? All trains should improve.”
Each morning and afternoon the train travels between Pretoria and Johannesburg, stopping in central Pretoria, Centurion, Kempton Park and at Johannesburg’s Park Station. From each station a shuttle service to all main business districts within a 25km radius is available.
The journey from central Pretoria starts at 6.15am and ends an hour later at Park station. In the afternoon, a commuter can leave Johannesburg at 5.30pm and be in Pretoria by 6.30pm.
Lucky Tsekeli, a social worker in Johannesburg, says that compared with the traffic jams, he can relax on the train — but he is hedging his bets.
”We, as commuters, are exploring the reliability of this new service … when Metrorail says it’ll take you to your destination, it doesn’t always mean it will do it on time. So if it’s reliable and on time, I will keep using it.”
Enjoying his morning coffee and reading the Star, he also wonders why there isn’t a toilet.
IT project manager Kgolane Mahlobogoane, flipping through a textbook, says the journey is saving him time. ”Now I can read and plan my day as opposed to two hours of driving, and when you’re driving you have to focus on driving and nothing else.”
Mahlobogoane also says he thinks white South Africans may be concerned about safety on the train, ”but it’s very safe”.
”Most people say they are waiting for the Gautrain, but there is a train already. You don’t stress, you don’t get home tired, you not only save money on petrol but also [on] maintenance of your car,” he adds.
Travelling on the Business Express costs from R20 for a single ticket (R40 for a return ticket) to R550 or R750 for a monthly ticket, depending on the distance travelled.
Lazarus Mehlomakhulu, tapping away at his laptop, is taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi. He likens the new train to a newborn baby.
”It needs to learn to crawl, walk, run and jump and so on. It will only get better. Before, you would be stuck in traffic for two hours; now I can do a little work and not waste my time. I will keep using it. It’s easier.”
Metrorail spokesperson Sibusiso Ngomane says that on the whole R50-million was used to get the Business Express rolling.
”R11-million was used for operational expenditure and the rest on the new train set as well as coaches,” he says.
”The coaches have a 40-year lifespan, so we can recover this amount within those years. The operational expenditure will take about 18 months to recover if we have 480 passengers per trip. Four hundred and eighty passengers will help us break even, but the capacity on the train is 580.”
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