Durban – The Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) has said repairs to the Reunion railway line and its intersection have been completed.
It said on Monday that trains on the Southern and Northern lines in Durban had been out of operation due to severe infrastructure damage following the April floods.
Prasa said repairs to the Reunion line and its intersection had been completed and, as a result, the train service between Durban and Merebank had been extended to Isipingo.
It added progress was also being made to restore services to the North Coast.
“The services will be introduced from Durban to Tongaat for now and it will be extended in due course; however, the services will be limited due to trains being hauled by diesel locomotives.”
Prasa said the restoration of these lines formed part of its recovery programme to rebuild the rail network that was suspended either due to vandalism or floods.
In June, The Mercury newspaper reported Prasa security was on high alert after threats of criminality and violence on some sections of the northern corridor.
At the time, Prasa said signalling cables, overhead traction equipment and rail assets had been under constant attack by criminals.
It said about R3.5 million worth of station assets had been stolen and vandalised, and some of the peace officers were attacked.
“About 19 suspects have been arrested and are facing prosecution. Repairing and restoring the infrastructure comes at a huge cost to Prasa, hence additional security to protect the infrastructure will be deployed, once the work has been completed. Measures have been put in place to mitigate further attacks on the rail infrastructure on that section of the network.”