Metrorail Western Cape has today, 26 July 2022, started its trial operations of recovering the Central line train service. Some commuters can again make use of limited services, since the Central line was shut down at the end of 2019.

The trial operations of the limited service include the following lines:

• Bellville to Ysterplaat via Lavistown station,
• Cape Town to Langa via Pinelands station and
• Cape Town to Langa via Mutual station.

The re-introduced lines were closed in 2019 due to vandalism on the Central Line.

PRASA recently recovered vandalised platforms, station lighting, ablution facilities for commuters, and station buildings, amongst others.

The work that was executed to recover the services was done in the following stations/corridors:

• Pinelands,
• Langa,
• Bonteheuwel,
• Lavistown,
• Belhar,
• Unibel,
• Pentech and
• Sarepta.

For the safe passage of the trains, PRASA says the infrastructure had to be rebuilt from the foundations up.

The region also had to repair 5 substations along the Cape Town – Bellville and Bellville – Langa route.

They are located at the following areas:

• Maitland,
• Langa,
• Belhar,
• Kasselsvlei and
• Bellville

PRASA says it had to improve its security deployment for the Central Line corridor – they say this can be witnessed at stations, on-board the trains and between the stations protecting the infrastructure.

There are currently two yellow train sets that are operational on the Central Line between Langa and Cape Town.

There will be an additional train set that will be added to the Central line service to run between Bellville and Cape Town via Lavistown on the 26th July 2022. The Central Line will have a total of three train sets.

Below are the weekly schedules for now:

Langa to Belville. PRASA has reopened certain sections of the Central Line to run trains safely. The full resumption of the Central Line will be done jn phases. It would not have been possible without the cooperation of the community occupying the rail reserve.#CentralLinePRASA pic.twitter.com/WpQlBu7A9R

— PRASA Group (@PRASA_Group) July 26, 2022

Metrorail Western Cape will on Tuesday, the 26thJuly 2022 start its trial operations of recovering the #CentralLineCT train service.
 
• Bellville to Ysterplaat via Lavistown,
• Cape Town to Langa via Pinelands and
• Cape Town to Langa via Mutual.@MbalulaFikile @Dotransport pic.twitter.com/9LqNRjCjKS

— Metrorail W/Cape (@CapeTownTrains) July 25, 2022