‘Raw deal’ from Metrorail, say Cape businesses

Businesses in the Cape Town metro have voiced their dismay at the effects of what they call a failure by Metrorail to deliver a reliable service.

Cape Town - Businesses in the Cape Town metro have voiced their dismay at the effects of what they call a failure by Metrorail to deliver a reliable service, a survey by the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry has revealed.

The survey sampled 80 businesses last week, all of which agreed the city’s rail transport system was failing and this failure was adversely affecting worker and goods transportation.

Chamber president Janine Myburgh said the rail transport system failure led to more people using their own cars, leading to congested road networks.

“What makes this so desperately sad is that Cape Town has the best network of railway lines of any city in the country, but the service on these lines seems to be getting worse every day. This lies at the heart of the coming crises,” she said.

A total of 85 percent of respondents said the unreliability of the rail service had demotivated staff and reduced productivity, while 90 percent said traffic congestion had increased transport costs in terms of fuel consumed and time lost.

At least 27 percent of respondents said worker absenteeism had increased by 10 percent because of transport issues, while another 50 percent said they had to deal with an absentee rate increase of up to 10 percent.

“Nearly 35 percent said they had assisted workers by providing some kind of transport or assistance with taxi fees and 47.6 percent said they had introduced flexi-time to ease commuting problems, while 27 percent said working from home was a viable option for some staff,” Myburgh said.

Employers said their workers were getting a raw deal from Metrorail.

“They pay for a monthly ticket but when the service is not there or trains are too late they have to find money to pay for taxi or bus fares. There are no refunds.”

Metrorail was recently plagued by violent protests with many coaches set alight and infrastructure vandalised.

Weekend Argus

noloyiso.mtembu@inl.co.za