I hope to travel to SA for a period of four months. Is there a rail pass I can purchase so I can board the rail from central Cape to the Claremont suburb Monday-Friday? Or is it a pay as you go? And how much? I was having difficulty navigating the national rail website

thanks.

You probably want the Cape Metrorail site (http://www.capemetrorail.co.za/) - be warned, the site is hideous and I couldn't find what you were looking for either. I do know from my UCT days that you can probably get a monthly pass though.

EDIT: After more digging around on that website, I found the information. Single trip is R5.50 (one way, most likely), weekly pass is R39.00, monthly pass is R128.00. Just need to do something about the eyeburn inflicted by that website now.

I hope to travel to SA for a period of four months. Is there a rail pass I can purchase so I can board the rail from central Cape to the Claremont suburb Monday-Friday? Or is it a pay as you go? And how much? I was having difficulty navigating the national rail website

thanks.
You can either buy a monthly ticket or use daily return tickets which are around R11/R12 return from Claremont to Central CT or Cape Town station (central CT) to fish hoek. Its cheap and convenient. And you mostly use platform 1 when leaving Cape Town station (on that route). It is safe, there is a police station inside the train station.

Just a comment on the monthly pass. Cape Town's month passes are not zonal, but route based. So if you get a month pass between point x and point y, you can only travel between those points. Because it costs the same (when I was there) to get a month pass from further out on the metro, I suggest you ask for a pass that takes you as far along the line as possible.

Besides that, it is astoundingly cheap.

Just a comment on the monthly pass. Cape Town's month passes are not zonal, but route based. So if you get a month pass between point x and point y, you can only travel between those points. Because it costs the same (when I was there) to get a month pass from further out on the metro, I suggest you ask for a pass that takes you as far along the line as possible.

Besides that, it is astoundingly cheap.

Maybe it is possible to buy a month pass between Bellville and Retreat via Cape Town? That way you have unlimited access to a the Southern Line, Northern Line (both branches) and Central Line. But I don't know whether this is possible... Anybody?

The nice thing about weekly and monthly tickets is that you can have as many rides per day as you wish. With a single or return ticket, the ticket is valid only for one unbroken journey.

I wish we had something like Oyster Card or Openbaar Vervoer Chipkaart that they use in London and Amsterdam respectively... SIGH...

The Octopus card used in Hong Kong is even more impressive. Use it to pay for McD's, Cafe de Coral, clothes at Bossini ect.