Commuters between Mamelodi and Pretoria will be the first to experience a train service consisting only of the new trains purchased by the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa).

The trains‚ which have been purchased in a R59bn deal with Gibela Rail Transport Consortium‚ are intended to modernise the aged urban Metrorail commuter service‚ which ferries 2.2 million passengers daily.

Gibela Rail Transport Consortium is a special purpose vehicle for the deal which is 61% owned by French power and transport giant Alstom.

The old trains are over 40 years old and are unreliable requiring continuous refurbishing and maintenance.

Speaking at the “Open-Line testing” of the first of the new trains in Pretoria on Monday‚ Prasa business readiness manager for modernisation in Gauteng‚ Abram Nkgabutle‚ said the new trains were expected to go into commercial service in October.

The trains would first run between Mamelodi and Pretoria‚ operating with the old Metrorail trains.

However‚ three months after this‚ only the new trains will operate on Mamelodi-Pretoria‚ Nkgabutle said.

Twenty of the trains are being manufactured in Brazil at Alstom facilities to speed up the modernisation programme.

The rest of the 580 trains will be manufactured at a R1bn factory which is under construction in Dunnotar‚ in Ekurhuleni.

“The trains will come and then we will move from a mixing strategy to a well enclosed service where the new trains will be able to operate separately from the old ones.

“Because when you used the new train with the old train‚ you will lose the benefits of the new train because of the old trains with their current performance.”