PRASA was formally established in December 2008, when the President signed the Legal Succession Act into law. This completed the consolidation of the various entities (Metrorail, Autopax, Shosholoza Meyl, and Intersite) into PRASA from what were the South African Rail Commuter Corporation and Transnet.

South Africa has never had a brilliant commuter train service. Under apartheid, black people had the indignity of being forced to sit in separate, inferior carriages (the remnants of that system still remain, euphemistically called Metrorail vs Metrorail Plus). But in the late 1990s, the service was competent enough that we should have expected Metrorail in our major cities to be world-class by today.

In 2022 Cape Town commuters stand anxiously on platforms that are operational, trying to estimate whether they should risk waiting as there was always a crowd waiting to board a train. But every day the trains don’t run properly. A service that used to work (sort of) has now been in chaos.

Faulty booms at crossings and train drivers have to wait for manual authorization which causes more delays.

Over the past couple of years, arson attacks have destroyed dozens of carriages and overhead wires above platforms in Cape Town.

The rail agency now has to contend with billions of rand in damages to its infrastructure as most of its stations are not guarded after security contracts were terminated.

The extensive vandalism on the network, Langa, Netreg, and especially in Gauteng, Roodepoort Benoni ranges from stolen overhead electric lines and tracks to damaged coaches.

But given the scale of the damages, plus commuter demands and financial hardships, there are questions about how it will increase capacity.