31 October 2006
South Africa has launched a railway policing unit to improve passenger safety on trains in the country.
Up to 24 "contact centres" are planned across the country in a public transport safety programme in which the South African Rail Commuter Corporation (SARCC) and its urban rail link, Metrorail, is investing more than R80-million, SARCC-Metrorail chief executive Lucky Montana said on Monday.
Montana was speaking at Cape Town's Retreat Station, where a parade of 50 entry-level constables and 17 senior police officials marked the launch of the Railway Police Unit in the Western Cape.
Four hundred members of the unit are already at work in stations throughout the province. The deployment of 250 railway police constables in Gauteng province is planned, with another 110 in KwaZulu-Natal and 250 in the Eastern Cape
By the time the rollout is completed in 2008, an estimated 5 000 police will be patrolling South Africa's rail corridors, "taking full control of all our security concerns in our railway stations and trains," Transport Minister Jeff Radebe told reporters on Monday.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, also present at the launch, said the officers would be "ambassadors for peace and security," adding that police officers would also be deployed on the country's long-distance trains.
The move ties in with the government's efforts to improve public transport in South Africa ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Radebe said the state would upgrading more than 2 000 rail coaches to meet passenger demand and ensure adequate rolling stock by 2010.
Accompanying this would be a focus on "strategic high-volume corridors" such as Khayelitsha in Cape Town, Hammanskraal in Pretoria and Moloto in Mpumalanga, as well as links between Midrand and Tembisa in Johannesburg.
Radebe added that there were "high possibilities" for a rail link between Cape Town International Airport and the city's central business district.
SouthAfrica.info reporter and BuaNews
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