GAUTRAIN’S OPERATIONAL PREDICTABILITY AND RELIABILITY

Posted on Nov 7, 2011 in General News

Since the opening of the Hatfield to Rosebank link, fourteen weeks ago, the Gautrain has operated 20,188 train services and transported close to 2,5 million passengers. Unfortunately over the last three weeks there have been several disruptions to the Gautrain rail and bus services. The Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) and the Bombela Concession Company sincerely regret these disruptions and wish to apologise to all the customers who have been affected by these delays and disruptions.

While incidents will cause delays on any new rail system, like Gautrain, and these can and will happen, the last three weeks have not seen a standard of service that meets our or our customers’ expectations. The GMA and Bombela’s joint aim is to implement a world-class system that achieves consistent excellence in reliability and punctuality and that provides a customer orientated service that ensures their safety and comfort. Over the last three weeks, we have not met the customer expectations with respect to reliability and are dedicated to doing several things better.

Firstly we are busy diagnosing the underlying causes of the service interruptions and are instituting measures to resolve them. In the week of 24 to 30 October there were problems related to the way the trains receive their power from the overhead catenary lines and a rolling stock failure that caused three trains to stop between stations and thus stranding passengers. On 1 November it was again an electrical fault that caused the section between Sandton and Rosebank to remain closed for several hours.
While this investigation is underway, immediate steps are being implemented to eliminate or significantly reduce future incidents. We will report fully on the causes and solutions to the problems when the investigation is complete.

Secondly we will improve communication with passengers, both those on trains and those entering the stations when any incident occurs. We will also communicate better through the media and social networks so as to be as close to real time information as possible. We have already implemented a SMS alert service (SMS ALERT to 32693) to augment our existing communication channels.

Thirdly, with any future incidents, the response times will be faster so as to minimise the impact on passengers in the system. The Bombela Operating Company has put into place operational plans that will allow passengers affected by incidents to reach their destinations as soon as possible.

Both Bombela as the Concessionaire and the Gautrain Management Agency as the public authority for Gautrain are extremely proud of the Gautrain and its brand and reputation. We will do everything possible to retain its good reputation and to offer a reliable, safe and affordable service to the public.