While President Cyril Ramaphosa dreams of bullet trains, the rest of us long for a working public transport system.

In late June 2019, the newly appointed Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, committed to taking a commuter train from Khayelitsha to Langa in Cape Town. According to a report by TimesLive, "Mbalula got an immediate taste of commuter frustrations when the train from Khayelitsha to Langa was delayed due to a loose wire hanging over the tracks, as well as a passenger incident - meaning that he could not complete the journey and was instead shuttled from Philippi to his final destination."

A similar situation resulted when President Cyril Ramaphosa attempted a rail commute in Gauteng in May. These instances will come as no surprise to regular commuters.

The state of transport

Public transport in South Africa is in crisis. There are endless reports of corruption at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) with more than R24-billion looted from the SOE over the past decade. We are also constantly exposed to stories about delayed or cancelled trains, torched carriages, and commuters injured or too often dying as a result of overcrowded and unsafe carriages. According to the Rail Safety Regulator's...