Metrorail will be stepping up it’s services in the wake of a national bus strike starting April 12. The nation wide bus strike is as a result of deadlocked wage negotiations between unions from the South African Road Passengers Bargaining Council and bus companies.
Thousands of employees in Cape Town will be left stranded as the bus strike includes companies opearating the MyCiti service as well as Golden Arrow. Both these service providers will institute a lock out to ensure the safety of the staff and commuters. All bus operations will come to a stand still from 12h01am. The time frame for the strike has not been stipulated and will continue indefinitely.
The City of Cape Town has approached Metrorail in order to ensure that the thousands of employees will be able to use the service without being inconvenienced with charges. The rail way service will initiate extended train operating hours, sooner departures from key stations to accommodate more people, schedule adjustments to cope with higher volumes.
Metrorail trains can be used by clipcard owners as an alternative to Golden Arrow Buses
Commuters who will be making use of trains will be able to use their clipcards for the train service this is only applicable to Golden Arrow Bus clipcards. This is on condition of weeklies which will expire on or before April 25 and monthlies which expire on or before May 17.
Metrorail Regional Manager Richard Walker has appealed to commuters to be patient, “We acknowledge that peak trains are already full and appeal to all train users to be patient, courteous and to assist fellow commuters.”
He advised the public to be at train stations earlier to make sure that there are as little complications as possible, “We advise commuters to arrive earlier at train stations rather than later, to consult the fare calculator for the correct fare and to check our social media sites for real-time service information.”
VOC spoke to the Golden Arrow Spokesperson Bronwyn Dyke-Beyer about plans for a national bus strike. Listen Here:
