A business express train linking Pietermaritzburg and Durban is being tested and could be ready for passengers this year, according to a report.
|||KwaZulu-Natal - A business express train linking Pietermaritzburg and Durban is being tested and could be ready for passengers this year, The Witness reported on Friday.
During his state-of-the-province speech on Thursday, KwaZulu-Natal premier Zweli Mkhize said a new customised train, costing R60 million, was complete.
Metrorail tested the train over the last two months.
Initial plans aimed to have the service up and running by April last year.
Mkhize said the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) indicated its willingness to build three similiar trains in the 2013/2014
financial year if the service proved successful.
This would help to promote the use of public transport.
The Pietermaritzburg Station would be revamped this year when the station is transferred from Transnet to Prasa.
As part of the project, which would cost R500 million over three years, thirty stations were being modernised.
Durban’s Berea Station would receive an R220 million upgrade. - Sapa