If you’re stuck in traffic this morning in a car to work, there is a good chance you’re missing a trick. You should be on the train making the most of one of Cape Town’s best kept secrets, writes Gasant Abarder in a new #SliceofGasant.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here, exclusive to Cape {town} Etc.
Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch — my mantra on the train as a 17-year-old first-year varsity student. To check I had all my faculties intact on the angst-ridden experience.
That was 25 years ago. Like Tiger Woods, I’m older, maybe wiser and definitely uglier now as I whisper the same thing on the way to Steurhof train station in Plumstead. I draw a smile from my travelling companion, Lorenzo Davids and then a hearty laughter when I explain the mantra to him. It’s Friday morning and I was finally able to make one of Lorenzo’s famous train journeys he has made so popular on Twitter.
Lorenzo and the ticket sales assistant Alvina chat like old friends as he buys his single Metro Plus ticket to town. Just R11.50 to travel to Cape Town CBD – the price of half-a-litre of petrol. On the way to the station we passed several trainloads’ worth of motorists sitting in their cars, listening to dull morning radio on the M5 on the way to town. If they knew just how easy, safe and pleasant our train journey would be they would be so envious.
Lorenzo has become somewhat of a train evangelist over the past few months. The semi-retired former CEO of Community Chest now works as a consultant for business. But his personal mission is to get more Capetonians on the train.
“I absolutely love trains. From day one, my parents took me on trains because we had no car. I lived close to Bellville South station where I would hop on and off. I’ve been fascinated by this kind of journey all through my life,” he tells me as we wait for train number 4554 on the Southern Line, which arrives at 7.08am – about three minutes late.
“Whether I’m here or elsewhere in the world, I seek out train journeys. It’s in my DNA. I prefer this mode of transport to any other that is available. It’s just so invigorating to get on board with a thousand other people and go to a place you want to be – safe, trusted and reliable.”
Lorenzo’s not wrong. Inside the carriage, we strike up invigorating conversations with a garment worker travelling to Salt River, a SACS schoolboy making his way from Lakeside to the prestigious Newlands school and a printer who used to travel the same line to Pentech I once did.
These commuters know Cape Town’s best kept secret. Despite this being one of the older sets in its yellow Metrorail livery, it is safe, clean and reliable and they are emphatic about how great the service is. Back then, as a student, trains from Esplanade station – located adjacent to Woodstock station – would take me directly to Pentech. They were scarce so I often hopped onto the busier Woodstock train, switching trains at Langa.
My connecting train used to arrive at the same time! If you wanted to catch it I needed to prise open the non-platform door, jump out onto the track and run over the lines and then commit: throwing my bag through the window so I was forced to make it, come what may. There were a few close calls.
My friends and I would be accosted daily by a more senior student whose sole mission was to intimidate us in the carriage. We didn’t know his name but nicknamed him Krusty after the cartoon clown in The Simpsons. He scared the crap out of us for giggles. Those journeys left me exhausted and mentally drained for constantly being on my guard.
How different this journey home from Cape Town to Lansdowne (the Cape Flats line) was on the slick new train set in its striking blue and silver suit. The driver Robert is younger than expected as he greets me warmly as I pass his cockpit. The journey costs just R8. There is a security officer at every 20-metre point in the single carriage train. It is beautiful and feels like the Gautrain. ‘Mind the platform gap,’ the announcer says ahead of each stop. I can’t help thinking that on this Cape Flats line that should be replaced with ‘passion gap’.
After 42-minutes, I’m home – buzzing after an exhilarating journey and with a deep feeling of satisfaction that I could go about my business using public transport successfully for the price of a litre of petrol.
We need to take ownership of these trains, Capetonians. The more we use it, problems like the central line not running, vandalism and theft, signaling and opportunistic crime will be eliminated. With our spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch intact.
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