Crowded, slow and unsafe: Travelling from Delft to Rondebosch via Cape Town

Shireen Williams is a 33-year-old Bonteheuwel resident. She works at a factory in Salt River, and travels on the same line as I do to work. “The train is the only way I can get to work cheaply. Taking the train is all I can afford on my salary,” Williams said. She said if she could afford to, she would not take the train, or she would travel first class. “The train is late a lot of the time, but what can you do? I get in trouble at work when that happens, so it really worries me. I really wish there could be more carriages in the evenings, because it’s just too full. It’s dangerous. I’ve seen a lot of people getting hurt and robbed,” Williams said.

Travelling by train quite often means constant delays, overloaded carriages to the point where it gets dangerous, and inadequate security. If one is able to travel Metro Plus (first class), the travel experience improves. First class carriages are less crowded, and have more security guards than the Metro (3rd class) carriages.

This is my typical route to work:

I leave my home in Delft at 06:30, and arrive at work at 08:40. I have to walk about 1.5km to the taxi terminus. The taxi takes me on a fifteen-minute drive to the nearest train station, Unibell, at the University of the Western Cape. The train stops at eight stations before arriving in Cape Town. I then board another train to Rondebosch, which stops five times before arriving at Rondebosch station. From there, I take a three-minute walk to work. A weekly train ticket for 3rd class costs R49. I also pay another R14 a day for the taxi. This comes to a total of R119 per week.