I commute to work by train regularly and Metrorail's service is not up to scratch.
I commute to work by train regularly and Metrorail's service is not up to scratch.
My gripe is the company's continuous failure to maintain an uninterrupted service.
Train delays during peak hours have become the norm and the reasons are seldom conveyed to commuters. If commuters are informed, it is done through a poor sound system. Also, schedules are frequently changed without notification.
An early morning trip from Johannesburg's Park Station to Pretoria B elicits comments such as: "I will never travel by train again".
Apart from the pushing and the shoving, time is wasted when commuters change from one train to the other, only to be informed through speakers to board the train from which they had just got off.
Between Monday and Friday after 3.30pm, commuters at Pretoria station run around from one train to another and back again, courtesy of the station's public information system.
In the process, disabled people and the elderly get no sympathy from fellow commuters in what has become survival of the fittest. Metrorail, the largest public transport provider, is easily accessible, but it must take a leaf from the UK's BritRail for professionalism. It can improve its service, and all it needs is to have the interest of its commuters at heart.
Ray Mashau, Dobsonville
Metrorail must move itself
I commute to work by train regularly and Metrorail's service is not up to scratch.
I commute to work by train regularly and Metrorail's service is not up to scratch.
My gripe is the company's continuous failure to maintain an uninterrupted service.
Train delays during peak hours have become the norm and the reasons are seldom conveyed to commuters. If commuters are informed, it is done through a poor sound system. Also, schedules are frequently changed without notification.
An early morning trip from Johannesburg's Park Station to Pretoria B elicits comments such as: "I will never travel by train again".
Apart from the pushing and the shoving, time is wasted when commuters change from one train to the other, only to be informed through speakers to board the train from which they had just got off.
Between Monday and Friday after 3.30pm, commuters at Pretoria station run around from one train to another and back again, courtesy of the station's public information system.
In the process, disabled people and the elderly get no sympathy from fellow commuters in what has become survival of the fittest. Metrorail, the largest public transport provider, is easily accessible, but it must take a leaf from the UK's BritRail for professionalism. It can improve its service, and all it needs is to have the interest of its commuters at heart.
Ray Mashau, Dobsonville
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