The award-winning Kei Rail passenger service between East London and Mthatha will resume on Friday, 10 June 2011.
This was announced today by the Eastern Cape MEC for Transport, Roads and Public Works, Ms Thandiswa Marawu during the 'Take a Girl Child to Work Campaign' in King Williams Town.
The official event to mark the re-introduction of the service will take place at Amabhele Station, outside Stutterheim in the morning of the same day.
Having halted operations last year due to financial constraints, Kei Rail is back and back for everyone and it's operations will restart from East London to Mthatha on Mondays to Fridays.
"Come back and enjoy your wide space on our large coaches! Kei Rail is still safe, reliable and affordable!" says MEC Marawu
The Kei Rail project already has a socio-economic impact as the department is currently running a learnership on rail studies, which is being conducted within the Centre for Rail Studies that is situated at the Walter Sisulu University. The centre is an initiative of the department and presently there are 39 learners, who are receiving training towards the following qualifications:
- 13 track masters
- 14 train managers and
- Seven train drivers
The track masters are currently doing their on-the-job training with Transnet, working at the railway track between East London and Cathcart. Five of the learner-track masters are doing outstandingly well, rating amongst the country’s best.
There are five additional trainees, who will be deployed in the train operations control room.
Train Managers will be undergoing a refresher-training in preparation for the resumption of Kei Rail passenger services next month.
Train drivers, which have been trained up to Train Driver Assistant level, will also be undergoing training with Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) to upgrade their qualification to Train Drivers.
Source: Eastern Cape Transport
