Metrorail on Tuesday again appealed to train commuters in Gauteng to use alternative transport as the strike by Transnet employees entered its second day.
Metrorail Tshwane said it ran a limited but improved service on Tuesday morning as the strike by Transnet workers entered its second day.
Thirty trains ran between 4am and 8am, eight more than on Monday, and buses were provided to serve stranded commuters, Metrorail spokesperson Thokozani Zitha said.
During off-peak periods only buses would run and while the company would do its best during peak time, it urged non-season ticket holders to look for alternative transport.
Another spokesperson, Brenda Motau, said that no trains would run on the Kwesine-Germiston and Oberholzer-Midway corridors, but transport by bus would be offered to commuters.
On all the other corridors, a 25% service would run, augmented by buses where it was ”practicable to do so”, Motau said.
All ticket offices remain closed.
On Monday afternoon, a 25%-to-normal service operated in Gauteng.
Transnet’s strike badly affected Metrorail in Gauteng but left the company’s other operations in the country unaffected, the firm said earlier on Monday.
”It’s business as usual in major centres such as Richards Bay, Port Elizabeth, East London, Saldanha Bay and Cape Town,” said Transnet spokesperson John Dludlu.
He said Metrorail, one of Transnet’s divisions, was, ”as expected”, affected by the first of day of strike, which left only a handful of trains operating in central Gauteng during peak hour on Monday.
Dludlu said Transnet, which has been embroiled in a dispute with unions over restructuring at the parastatal, was working hard to keep disruptions limited.
”Management met with unions … on Friday to further discuss the unions’ dispute over the process of restructuring at Transnet.
”The unions are currently considering a proposal to introduce an external mediator in our efforts to resolve the dispute.
”Transnet is committed to ensuring that the jobs and benefits of those employees who will be transferred to other employers as a result of the restructuring plan will not be negatively affected,” Dludlu said.
Transnet workers — who are members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), the United Association of South Africa, the South African Railways and Harbour Workers’ Union and the United Transport and Allied Trade Union — are opposed to the firm’s restructuring plan.
Metrorail workers, together with those of Spoornet, South African Port Operations, the National Ports Authority, Petronet, Transwerk, Autopax, Freightdynamics and a number of smaller business units at Transnet were taking part in the strike in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the North West. — Sapa