In South Africa we have a train service that is known as “Metrorail”. They are transporting up to 2 million passengers daily in Gauteng, Western Cape, Kwazulu-Natal and Eastern Cape regions. To travel on the rail network you just need to determine which station to start at and end your trip with, with options of single, weekly and monthly tickets. For the actual routes and stations see these maps. For the time tables on each of the journey to the end station – click here.
Metrorail also run a business express that run a trip in the morning and evening that offers Host and Hostesses, security, refreshments, complimentary newspaper, 5km shuttle service, free parking at home station all being applicable to only monthly and weekly ticket holders. This is only on certain rail lines and stations being Soweto to Johannesburg, Pretoria to Johannesburg, Khayelitsha to Cape Town and Strand to Cape Town. For more info.
The safety of passengers is important to Metrorail and they have security guards on trains and at stations, but you still need to be very aware of the surrounds to not put yourself at risk.
A new Mobile App – gometro.co.za is also available for passengers to get all the up to date information (Train departure, Trains leaving later, My train, Line announcements, Fare info, Maintenance programs and press releases) for the Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape lines. This App is well worth getting if you are tourist to a city and want to be informed on your mobile phone as it runs on Android, Nokia, Windows phones (soon to be released on iPhone and Blackberry) – Downloadable from Google play. They are also on facebook and Twitter.
In Cape Town the Metrorail service is ideal for the trip from Cape Town to Simons Town where you can hop on and off, making it into a day trip down the peninsula without any worries. You can stop at surfers corner in Muizenberg, Kalk Bay for shopping experience, Fishhoek for a play on the beach or Simons Town for some history.
