Cape Town has taken a major step towards running its own passenger rail system after approving a Rail Business Plan aimed at shifting control of Metrorail services away from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) and into municipal hands.
The decision clears the way for the City to formally approach the National Department of Transport with a memorandum requesting that rail operations be devolved to local government. If approved, it would mark a significant shift in how commuter rail services are managed in the metro, as per GroundUp.
Mayoral committee member for urban mobility Rob Quintas said the transfer of responsibility cannot happen without financial backing from National Treasury, stressing that any handover would require a multi-year funding agreement to be viable. Without this support, he indicated, devolution would remain out of reach.
The City’s broader long-term mobility vision sets 2028 as a target for completing the process, although Quintas cautioned that the final timeline rests with national government and is not within the City’s control. He said progress will depend on decisions taken beyond municipal level.
Included in the approved plan is a proposal to extend rail infrastructure to Blue Downs, with room for further expansion in the future, as part of efforts to improve access and connectivity for commuters.
The push for devolution follows years of tension between the City and PRASA. In 2023, Cape Town threatened to trigger an intergovernmental dispute after repeated failures to establish a joint working committee on rail devolution. By October 2024, the City said national government delays had stalled the process multiple times, before a Service Level Plan between PRASA and the municipality was eventually signed in February 2025.
Calls for local control have intensified against the backdrop of a prolonged decline in passenger rail services, which reached a breaking point with a near-total system collapse in 2021. Earlier this year, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy revealed that restoring the Central Line, widely regarded as Cape Town’s most critical rail corridor, had already cost around R1.3-billion.
Quintas said bringing Metrorail under municipal control would be especially beneficial for lower-income residents who rely on trains to travel long distances between home, work and school, adding that a more responsive, locally managed system could better serve the daily needs of commuters across the city.
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Picture: Sandiso Phaliso / Groundup
