DA: Solution needed for Cape Town train torchings
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the Department of Transport to come up with permanent solutions to the torching of trains.
Commuters in the city suffered a fresh blow after six carriages and a motor coach went up in flames on Saturday.
The train caught fire between Kentemade and Century City stations.
The train had no passengers on board and no injuries were reported.
The DA’s Angus McKenzie says the number of carriages has now dwindled to 22.
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"We are extremely concerned at the ongoing fires taking place on our railway infrastructure network. This is the umpteenth fire which has seen us go down to 22 carriages that we only have left in the Western Cape.
"We've seen nothing concrete, nothing serious, no plans in place from (passenger rail agency) Prasa or the national Department of Transport, all this while thousands of people no longer use rail.”
McKenzie believes the torching of trains is nothing less than economic sabotage.
"People have lost their jobs, it’s inconvenienced commuters and residents, there's an economic sabotage that is taking place.
“We really implore the national department to come up with something more concrete that is able to implement but we need to get to the bottom of who setting trains alight. It cannot be that we have the South African police services that have done absolutely nothing but arrest two minors for a fire last year.”