PRASA then and now: going nowhere slowly …

By Jasper Cook

Idly, I wondered what my options would be if I wanted to take a train from Johannesburg to Colesberg, as I used to back in the days of Toverberg Indaba. That would have entailed the Jhb-Gqeberha route. I looked on the internet. Three routes are mentioned, but only one service survives.

Jhb–Cape Town

I could arguably be picked up at De Aar, 140 kilometres from Colesberg. It’s not close, but it has been done before. According to the 1949 SAR Timetable above, the duration of the Jhb to Cape Town journey was 29 hrs 5 mins, with both ‘up’ and ‘down’ trains running three times weekly. In 1994, I remember the duration was 25 hrs 58 mins. In 2025, according to this site, the duration is 41 hrs 31 mins, but according to the Shosholosa Meyl website, there is no such service. I can’t get a train to Cape Town — in fact, the words ‘Cape Town’ do not appear on the Shosholoza Meyl site. So, one of the best-known cities in the world does not rate a mention on its site, and does not rate as a rail tourist destination. How about THAT?

My browser also warns me that the Meyl site is insecure. Great: the official Prasa web writers can’t get even the basics right. Still, the site bids me WELCOME TO A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE, so all is well, right?

Jhb–East London

Ok, so the Cape Town route is out of the picture. I could arguably be picked up at Springfontein or Bethulie on the East London line. I thought the PE train of old had a higher ridership than the EL train, but PE (a.k.a. Gqeberha) has vanished from the timetables. My dad would say, ‘Well, I never!’ Prasa giveth, and Prasa taketh away.

In 1949, the East London train departed Park Station at 14h00, arriving East London the following day at 15h15, a duration of 25 hrs 15 mins. It ran daily, excluding Saturdays and Mondays. Currently, this is the only scheduled mainline passenger service. It is a MONTH-END SERVICE, it shouts. So it runs, at most, once a month. This isn’t the worst news, though. Try looking at the timetable. The trip starts in Jhb at 10h45 on Sunday, ETA Monday 19h26. That’s 30 hrs 51 mins.

There is nothing about this schedule that makes any sense: Germiston to Vereeniging, for example, (a 90-minute bus ride) takes four hours. Bloemfontein is reached at 04h35, 16 hours out from Jhb. Jhb–Bloem is a six-and-a-half-hour coach trip. Most people drive it easily in five hours. SAR a.k.a. SATS just once did that trip in 3 hrs 46 mins. Then, at Bloemfontein, for no sensible reason at all (they don’t respect your time enough to explain), one is faced with a three-hour wait before the journey continues, leaving Bloem at 07h35. Brandfort, on the timetable, is spelt ‘Bradford’. Suddenly we are in Yorkshire, England! In the best timetable version of dyslexia I have ever seen, Cathcart is spelt ‘CartCath’ (twice, on both outgoing and incoming schedules). You really have to try to be this stupid.

Sabotage?

Nobody in SA cares about rail. If they did, they would realise, as I have long done, that this is not stupidity but daily, weekly, monthly and yearly sabotage, probably directed by a government agency in the pay of taxi organisations. Think about it. Every country in the world has progressed to faster, more comfortable, cleaner and safer trains, competing with airlines for short trips of 300-500 kilometres.

But not us — we have regressed to slower trains (half the speed of a century ago), and now, no trains at all. Whereas Europe and Asia are deploying trains at 300 km/h, we have reduced our average speeds from 60 km/h to 30 km/h, and then zero, and nobody notices nor cares. Not so long ago, the minimum jail sentence for sabotasie was five years, and the maximum penalty was death by hanging. None of which gets me to Colesberg, but now I am curious. Let’s look at Durban.

Jhb–Durban

Against JHB—DBN–JHB, a button tells me to OPEN. A pop-up appears giving departure times from Jhb and from Durban, but not the duration, nor what days the train(s) run on. As usual with anything smelling even slightly of old school SAR, there is a warning in big capital letters: BOOKING IN ADVANCE is ESSENTIAL. Some phone numbers are provided, or otherwise, you can ‘visit your nearest Shosholoza Meyl ticket office’. Still curious about Durban, I looked for timetables. There are none. There was a Comrades Runners train, but that was a once-off. Let’s be positive and say that one actually did run, and was not the shock that this one was.

So, there are no scheduled services to Durban, but if there were, it would take 30 hrs 20 mins, more than double the 1994 duration of 13 hrs 58 mins. And anyway, why are we shouted at to BOOK IN ADVANCE when there is no service to book for?

There are actually two buttons for East London: obviously, the web writer copied and pasted the previous entry, intending to add details for (e.g.) PE/Cape Town, but … no train, no details. So s/he just left the button in, in case it would come in handy one day. We live in hope.

The trend

The comedian Jackie Mason had the following routine:

‘Notice, I have a soytan technique. I start out quietly, and liddle by liddle, I die out altagedda.’

There you are, then. Prasa took their MO straight from a rabbi-turned-comedian’s schtick. For that, its CEO earns R7.8 million per annum.

So what?

Kenya

Mombasa and Durban stations are both close to sea level. Nairobi and Johannesburg altitudes are 1795m and 1735m respectively. The Mombasa–Nairobi and Durban–Johannesburg rail routes are both about 600km long. Since about the time that President Jacob Zuma resigned, Kenyans have been able to board a train at 15h00 in Mombasa and travel to Nairobi at 130kph, arriving in Nairobi in time for supper at 20h00. Five hours, for something that Prasa can do for you in 30 hrs 20 mins.

Tanzania

Since just before our last general election, Tanzanians have been able to board a train in Dar es Salaam and disembark at Mogoma 3 hrs 30 mins later. Prasa does a comparable distance from Durban to Newcastle in 13 hrs 57 mins. The Tanzania track is electrified, does not suffer from cable theft, and travel speed is 160km/h, the same as the Gautrain.

Bookings

Have a look at online booking for the Madaraka Express. Nobody asks you to go down to the nearest railway ticket office. Fares are payable via MPESA, a Kenyan invention. SMS-based booking appears to be available for Tanzania’s SGR. No smartphone needed.

Try and book online for the Shosholoza Meyl. I dare you. THAT’S WHAT.

FEATURED IMAGE: The Shosholoza Meyl … now you see it, now you don’t. (Wikimedia Commons)