Cape Town - After two years of not having access to public rail transport, Metrorail commuters in the Northern suburbs will again have access to the yellow and grey trains as they return to service the line through Goodwood.
Metrorail Western Cape said that by Wednesday commuters on the line will be able to make use of their services once again after the line was closed during lockdown level 5 in March 2020.
Metrorail spokesperson Nana Zenani said the rail company would restore its services between Cape Town and Bellville via Goodwood through structured phases.
“Phase 1 will see trains running empty without passengers on the line starting March 14 as part of trial operations. Metrorail will refine its operations and introduce a passenger service by Wednesday, March 16, which will come complete with a new operating timetable.
“All the stations will be operational between Cape Town and Bellville with the exception of Parow Station that still needs repair works as it was badly vandalised,” Zenani said.
Metrorail acting regional manager Kaparo Molefi said: “Metrorail is focused on recovering passenger rail services in the Western Cape. Our aim is to ensure that all our rail corridors are operating as expected post the Covid-19 level 5 lockdown and that all vandalised station facilities are repaired in line with customer needs.
"We will focus on ensuring that station facilities as well as rail infrastructure are up to standard before we operate the line as per the Rail Safety Regulator (RSR). The safety of our passengers and employees in operations is the most important aspect of service resumption.”
Prior to the announcement, Metrorail said it had finalised repairing and sprucing up Tygerberg, Vasco and Elsies River train stations, while the restoration of Thornton was close to completion.
“The repairs to the overhead electrical infrastructure have also been completed and are ready to supply overhead traction power to the trains,” Molefi said.
Unlike the southern line, which now has the new blue trains working through peak and off-peak hours, commuters on the northern line will only have access to the new blue trains after peak hours.