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Cape Town - Thales-Maziya Consortium has been awarded a R1.86bn contract to upgrade the train traffic control and signalling system in the Western Cape, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) said on Wednesday.
Prasa spokesperson Nana Zenani said the consortium would establish a new train traffic control centre in Cape Town and design, construct, and install a new railway signalling system.
She said the upgrade to the signalling system would begin in the current financial year and replace mainly obsolete mechanical and electromechanical systems with electronic interlockings.
"Currently, only 23 of the 162 (14%) signalling installations across the Prasa network have not exceeded their design life. The rest of the signalling averages 35 years in age and is at the end of its life cycle," she said.
Similar upgrades would be taking place nationally.
"At the heart of the signalling programme is the need to guarantee passenger safety and operational efficiency, which is largely dependent on rail signalling," Zenani said.
"The unavailability of spares due to the age of the rail signalling has made it increasingly impossible to perform maintenance and fault-finding duties."
Prasa hoped the upgrades would improve train headways and on-time performance.
