Cape Town and eThekwini metros are expected to receive the first two batches of 35 modern locally built trains, but as President Cyril Ramaphosa found out on Tuesday, the ride will be bumpy.
The average Cape Town train commuter has never seen a modern train, such as the Gautrain, in real life.
Those who witnessed one of the brand-new blue trains whizzing by at 120 km/h on Tuesday would have been just as surprised to see the president walking through the aisles – as they would have been to see the train had windows.
Since 2015, Cape Town’s Metrorail trains have been in a state of disrepair, lacking windows, doors and seats. Arson attacks, said to be linked to a dispute between Passenger Rail Agency for South Africa’s (Prasa) and the unions representing rail workers, reduced the fleet from 90 trains to 44 after the last fire in October.
Some trains were built nearly 60 years ago, such as the one Ramaphosa tried to take from Mabopane to Pretoria three weeks ago. The commute, which should have taken 45 minutes, took the president three hours after the train broke down between stations.
But the new trains have features that can address many of the current problems:  

The new trains come complete with cameras in every coach with live feeds to the driver. There is no gap between coaches and the windows can’t open, making it extremely difficult to get onto the roof.
The trains are much less likely to catch fire, as there are no easily combustible materials inside. Instead of sponge seats, which in Cape Town are used to hide knives, or as fuel to start a fire, there are solid plastic seats built into the coach.
The interior is heated and cooled with an air-conditioning system.
The train cannot move if one of the doors is open.
An emergency lever in each coach will alert the driver who can see on a live feed what the problem is. If the driver does not respond, the train will stop and the doors will open...