What are the duties of PRASA?

Provide safe, reliable, affordable commuter rail, long-haul passenger rail and long-haul intercity bus services.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996 identifies the legislative responsibilities of different spheres of government with regards to all modes of transport and associated infrastructure.

The r thlegislatipolicies for rail, pipelines, roads, airports, harbours, and the intermodal operations of public transport and freight. As such, it conducts ;sector research, formulates legislation and policy to set the strategic directions of subsectors, ;assigns responsibilities to public entities, regulates through setting norms and standards, and monitors implementation.

Over the medium term, the department planned to focus on intensifying its efforts to improve mobility and access to social and economic activities ;by cultivating an enabling environment for the maintenance of national and provincial road networks, the improvement and integration of road‐based public transport services, and the modernisation of passenger rail infrastructure.

According to the Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey of 2021, 33,6% of South African households had at least one household member who used a minibus taxi/sedan taxi/bakkie taxi during the week preceding the survey.

The use of minibus taxi was most common in Gauteng (41,3%) and KwaZulu-Natal (38,3%). By comparison, 3,7% of South African households used a bus during the preceding week. It is notable that 10,5% of households in Mpumalanga used the bus. Only 0,2% of households used trains.

To improve efficiencies at Driver’s Licence Testing Centre (DLTC) level, the DoT was  expected to implement a new service-delivery  model that would not only improve the experience of the motorist but would drastically cut down turnaround times.

This  includes the time an applicant spends  at a DLTC  to the time it takes  to receive a driving licence.  The department has  already  implemented the online payment system,  which eliminated the time spent by an applicant in a queue.

The deployment of smart enrolment infrastructure in the 2022/23 financial year will further improve the processing time as  the units are linked to Home Affairs real time to validate the identity of the applicant.

By mid-2022, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC)  was finalising the agreement with the Health Professions Council of South Africa  that would enable motorists  to do an eye test  at an optometrist of their choice and the results directly uploaded in the system.

Maintaining South Africa’s roads

The Road Transport programme facilitates activities related to the maintenance of the country’s national and provincial road network. The national road maintenance backlog has grown over the years, partly due to the shifting of funds from non‐toll roads to more economically viable toll roads.  Factors such as the condition of roads, weather patterns and traffic volume determine grant allocations for the maintenance of provincial roads.  Over the medium-term period, provinces were expected to rehabilitate, reseal, regravel and blacktop‐patch roads.

Facilitating integrated road‐based public transport networks

The public transport network grant funds the infrastructure and indirect costs of bus rapid transit services in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town, George, Nelson Mandela Bay  and Ekurhuleni.  In these cities  and regions,  funding from the grant is expected to lead to a combined increase in the number of weekday passenger trips on bus rapid transit services from 216 214 in 2021/22 to 331 275 in 2024/25.

Addressing passenger rail challenges

Inefficient investments in, and the deferred maintenance and insufficient safeguarding of South  Africa’s rail infrastructure has resulted in  the  rapid deterioration of the passenger rail network and its services. As part of recognising that their recovery is key to providing affordable, safe and reliable public transport services.

Allocated funds will be used to focus on repairs and maintenance as part of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s  (PRASA) rolling stock fleet renewal programme, and improved security.

In recovering commuter rail services, the DoT had to adjust the timelines for the resumption of services  in a number of these corridors  due to either protracted procurement processes  for infrastructure such as substations  and other factors beyond its control.

The Mabopane – Pretoria  – Johannesburg  – Naledi line is a core network of PRASA in Gauteng and a major priority for PRASA’s recovery, as well as the Cape Town – Langa – Khayelitsha  – Kapteinsklip  corridor in the Western Cape.

PRASA’s Corridor Recovery Plan has identified 10 priority corridors for resumption of services, with the last coming on stream by December 2022.  By mid-2022, services  had already resumed on five of these corridors.

The Mabopane line has already resumed services, which is being undertaken in two phases. Phase one implementation is in full swing, with five stations operational in Pretoria,  Hercules, Mountain View, Pretoria North and Mabopane.

Phase 2 will see additional 15 train stations renovated and brought back into service.  More train trips will also be introduced with shorter headways. The return to service of the Central Line was also undertaken in two phases.

Phase 1 entailed restoring services on the Cape Town to Bellville (via Sarepta); Langa to Pinelands and Langa to Nyanga segments. The manufacturing plant at Dunnottar in Ekurhuleni has produced 95 new train sets and delivered to PRASA. A total of 68 of these train sets have been deployed on the network.