Cape Town - Commuters and visitors to Simon’s Town have been forced to use a bus service to and from Fish Hoek because the railway tracks have disappeared under a bed of sand.
The line to the historic seaside village has been out of action since July, but Metrorail regional manager Richard Walker is hopeful it will be fully operational by mid-January.
Commuters have posted pictures of the tracks, slamming the state of the lines and suggesting something be done before it was too late.
The Fish Hoek-Simon’s Town line was closed by a directive of the Rail Safety Regulator when a section of the seawall caved in due to the pressure of the sand blown against it.
Retired councillor and former mayor of Simon’s Town Nicki Holderness said the retaining wall collapsed last year and pointed out if Metrorail had repaired it then, the sand wouldn’t have built up.
Holderness said the dysfunctional railway line was adding to the load on the road, which was already under pressure from the ongoing road works.
She said the condition of the track itself was a problem and if it wasn’t maintained properly then the future of the line, which had been built in 1892, was in jeopardy.
Resident David Erickson said there were four tracks on the Simon’s Town railway line.
“The outer one first got buried and they did nothing, then the same thing happened to the others and now the line is unusable,” he said.
Erickson, who is also chairman of the Simon’s Town Historical Society, said it would have taken some workers with a wheelbarrow and some sacks to clear the line. He said there didn’t seem to be any motivation from Metrorail to act.
The sand-covered lines have also meant an end to the popular scenic ride around the peninsula on the Atlantic Rail steam train with its wooden-bodied vintage coaches from Cape Town to Simon’s Town.
“They have had to use another route but it’s had an impact on shop owners because the train was always full and the passengers would spend hours in Simon’s Town shopping,” said Erickson.
Metrorail spokeswoman Daphne Kayster said the clearing-up and recovery of the line had been delayed due to the process of having to comply with regulations of the Department of Environmental Affairs, which required the submission of an environmental management plan on how the work would be safely performed without negatively impacting the surrounding environment.
But Erickson said it was exchanging “like for like” so there should have been no reason for environmental approval when the wall had already been there.
Walker said they had been working with the Department of Environmental Affairs to ensure compliance with all the requirements of the law.
Metrorail had now been granted permission to start work which would be done in phases.
It would involve clearing and removing sand from the tracks as well reinstating the section of the retaining wall that had collapsed.
Ward councillor Simon Liell-Cock said the long term closure of the line would result in tourists opting for road transport, which would place more vehicles on the access routes to the far south which were already congested.
Cape Argus