South Africa: New Transport Minister 'Responsive' to Cape Town's Plan to Shift Metrorail From Prasa, Says Quintas

31 July 2024
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Steve Kretzmann

'Our objective is simple: to get passenger rail back up and running in the quickest possible way,' says Roberto Quintas.

Listen to this article 8 min Listen to this article 8 min Newly appointed Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has been "incredibly responsive" to the City of Cape Town's request to discuss shifting the management of Metrorail from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to the municipality.

Mayoral committee member for urban mobility Roberto Quintas says communication with the new minister so far consisted of "a few WhatsApp chats" and was informal, but he was confident Creecy would "be a new broom".

"I'm confident that serious inroads can be made with many things... including our account-based ticketing, including the rail devolution strategy," said Quintas during an exclusive interview in his Civic Centre office. (Account-based ticketing allows customers to use a debit card to get a ticket.)

Stonewalled

The White Paper on National Rail Policy, gazetted in May 2022, allows for capable municipalities to manage rail networks in their city. But previous transport ministers have stonewalled the City's attempts to develop a rail devolution strategy.

In August 2023, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis threatened to lodge an intergovernmental dispute against Prasa after numerous unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a service level agreement with Prasa over the running of Metrorail, which is...

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