Cape Town activists hold rally for better train services

Activists from the #UNITEBEHIND movement staged a protest at the Cape Town train station on October 4 to demand that commuters be allowed to use their expired train tickets to travel.

The requests come on the basis of large amount of delays and cancelations by Metrorail occurring daily, causing inconvenience and high transport costs.

They are also calling on the Minister of Transport, Dr Blade Nzimande to declare a state of emergency on trains to allow more resources and funding to be made available.

The railway system is currently only operating at 30% of capacity, with just 40 usable train sets available. The system requires at least 88 sets to function effectively.

Commuters in the Western Cape suffer on a daily basis when trains are delayed due to infrastructure failure, copper theft, train fires and the unavailability of train carriages for the peak times.

The railway company responded saying they will commit to engage with activists and commuters on around their concerns.