• Drastic Decline in Train Usage: In 2017, an estimated 43% of passengers had stopped using trains over the previous four years. By 2021, that number had risen to 80%, leaving millions of working-class South Africans stranded.
• Increased Expenses: Commuters spend over 30% of their income on transport, often forced to choose between basic necessities and getting to work.
• Unsafe Conditions: The State of Railway Safety Report recorded nearly 500 fatalities and over 2,000 injuries in 2017 due to operational failures. Overcrowded, poorly maintained stations and carriages put lives at risk, with women and children especially vulnerable.
• Rights & Livelihoods: High transport costs prevent people from accessing jobs, healthcare, and education, keeping poor communities trapped in townships on the outskirts of cities. The relics of apartheid are sustained: we are unable to access health and education services, job opportunities, and recreation.
• Delays & Job Losses: Unreliable service leads to missed work, job loss, and lost family time, deepening stress and hardship.

Goals and Objectives

• Ensuring that South Africa’s commuter rail is revitalised to an affordable, safe, efficient, and sustainable service.
• Ensuring that corruption and state capture at PRASA is replaced with accountability, transparency, and responsive governance.
• Ensuring the devolution of commuter rail to the lowest appropriate level of governance.
• Ensuring that the voice of poor & working class commuters are at the forefront of public transport politics in South Africa.

Work Strategy

• Mobilising support for our campaign goals and around our legal cases
• Political advocacy
• Education workshops
• Protests and political actions, such as rallies, sit-ins, and marches
• Research, bringing together grassroots and academic knowledge
• Litigation and other legal mechanisms