Gautrain management has expressed dismay that its staff allegedly encouraged passengers to disembark and walk along the tracks after a train broke down between Pretoria and Johannesburg.
The Gautrain company on Tuesday morning said it was still investigating the failure of a train that left hundreds of passengers stuck for more than two hours – and hundreds others delayed – while its emergency protocols broke down and possibly endangered lives.
"I'm aghast to hear you say that," said Gautrain spokesperson Errol Braithwaite, when told of reports that passengers were disembarking and walking back to a station along the tracks. "That would have been an extremely unsafe thing to do. Metres away you have another live track with trains whipping along at 160km/h."
Several passengers used Twitter to not only express their anger at delays and a lack of communication, but to tweet pictures of other passengers walking along the tracks.
Braithwaite also expressed shock at the suggestion that Gautrain staff had told irate passengers that they were welcome to disembark and catch taxis, saying that was certainly contrary to protocol.
"What we need to do now is pause and catch our breath," he said. "In the heat of the moment when people are angry and inconvenienced, tempers do get raised and allegations do get made, but when we look back those are not always borne out by the facts."
Braithwaite said CCTV footage would be used to look into such incidents, and determine how safety procedures had broken down.
While passengers travelling south from the Hatfield and Pretoria central stations saw some delay in morning rush hour service, as their trains were diverted around their stationary sister, commuters on the stuck train spent just over two and a half hours waiting for a "rescue train".
"Two hours is one and a half hours longer than we would have expected," said Braithwaite. He speculated that there must have been some technical reason for the delay in providing an alternative train, but said an investigation would have to be done.
Two weeks ago passengers on a train between Rosebank and Park Station were stuck in an underground tunnel, in the dark, for well over an hour. Power was eventually restored, and passengers did not have to change trains.
Gautrain does not offer refunds or compensation for delays.
Passengers and other Twitter users were especially amused that a train had broken down on the same day that reports emerged of how security staff had detained two sisters for four hours after they were caught chewing gum in a station. "Hope @TheGautrain isnt stuck cause it stepped on sum gum. hahaha" tweeted user @njabuX.