PRASA Modernization Programme

PRASA Modernization Programme

“South Africa’s passenger rail service carries‑over 2.6 million commuters daily. This is achieved under grave challenges of old technology and unreliable rolling stock. In 2011 the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) announced its acquisition of a new Rolling Stock Program. PRASA has also initiated a 20-year Modernization Program which will update signaling, permanent way and old technology to reverse the historic under-investment in passenger rail” (KPNG).

A new contract was signed in October 2013 to build 7224 new vehicles over 20 years, with the first 6000 to be ready within the first decade. The manufacturing company would also provide technical support for the project. Each train would have six cars and can carry more than 1300 passengers. The trains would be able to travel on an average speed of 120 km/h and when upgraded can travel at 160 km/h. This would create more than 65000 jobs in the South African economy.

But work has been slow. In fact, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) called on PRASA to accelerate its modernisation programme after commuters went on a rampage in Johannesburg last August. There have been many allegation of corruption and with the political turmoil, it is unsure whether the project would be completed in time.

PRASA logo (Image Credits: Infrastructurene.ws)

Singapore Intelligent Transport System

Singapore Intelligent Transport System

Despite being one of the smallest countries in the world, Singapore has been at the forefront of trying to build a culture of propagating new forms of technology to solve its resource-scarce problems.  Take the example of land: a commodity where the country lacks in. But it has not faced any major traffic-related as its intelligent transport system (ITS) maximise road network efficiency capacity as well as monitor and manage traffic flow.

This path has clearly been established by the Smart Mobility 2030 Plan, a guideline to successfully implement ITS initiatives for a smarter future urban mobility. “Thanks to its Intelligent Transport System, Singapore is one of the

least congested major cities in the world despite a‑growing urban population and limited physical space. This integrated pay-as-you-use system maximizes the capacity of the road network with vehicle quotas, sophisticated electronic road pricing (ERP) tolls that vary according to traffic flows, and alerts to drivers, all controlled in real time from an operations center. Consequently, average car speeds of 27 km/hour compare favorably to 16 km/hour in London and 11‑km/hour in Tokyo.” (KPMG). This is considered to be a very clever system which allow the citizens to easily choose and change their mode of transport.

 The ITS World Conference is said to be held in Singapore this year; the forum is expected to hold major discussions on improving the status of ITS in Singapore (Image Credits: ITSSingapore.org)