Minister receives new batch of PRASA locos
Moving along nicely:
When a new batch of diesel locomotives was docked off the ship at the Cape Town harbour on Wednesday, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters walked towards the Afro4001 loco and kissed it.
The Minister then told journalists that the delivery of the locos was an exciting moment for government and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) because they would go a long way in reducing travel time, providing comfort, reliability and improving efficiency.
The roll-out of the locos are expected to contribute to the rail operator’s plan of modernising the country’s rail infrastructure, including rolling stock, signal upgrade, infrastructure rehabilitation, station modernisation, new locomotives for long distance passenger services
All in all, 70 high-tech locomotives are expected to be delivered over the next few months, and they will be made up of 50 Euro Dual electro-diesel and 20 Euro 4000 diesel locomotives.
As they arrive, PRASA will take them to the track to test them until March, and thereafter, the locos will start operating from April this year.
The Minister said the Afro4001 diesel locomotive has already been tested and on one test-run, it pulled up to 50 coaches over a notable distance.
The trains will run along six long distance corridors, including the Johannesburg to Cape Town route.
As soon as PRASA receives new stock during the first half of the year, these will be increased to 10 corridors.
The Minister said government was investing R172.3 billion in the next 10 years to fast track the modernisation of public passenger transport to rail, from which R3.5 billion has gone into the manufacturing of 70 locomotives.
About R51 billion will go towards the manufacturing of 600 new trains for Metrorail, the Minister said.
Molefe, meanwhile, said the 70 locomotives were being manufactured in Spain, and added that PRASA would receive the first 20 of these within the next six months.
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/minister-receives-new-batch-of-prasa-locos-2015-01-15