This mornings meeting was held at Intersite's office at Jorrisen Street, the old PRASA offices. This is the view from the 12th floor boardroom. You can see the Shosholoza Junction Building with the Shosholoza Rolling Stock sheds next to it.
After a busy day at work, I was wondering how to get my brother-in-law Hans from the airport to my house and be back in time for cell. Matthew was at baseball practice and Carol waiting for him would only be back about six thirty. This gave me no time to drive across town and back before seven thirty. The Gautrain was the answer. I drove my Vespa to the Sandton Station hop onto the Gautrain and was in Rhodesfield before Hans could blink an eye. Soon we were gliding back to Sandton passing frustrated commuters in their cars trying to get home. The longest part of the whole operation was waiting for Carol to pick Hans up at the drop-off zone on West Street. Anyway this was Hans' first experience of the Gautrain so a perfect photo opportunity.
On my visit to the Braamfontein Training Centre I popped my head into the shed where I saw three run down armoured train units, a Funkey, Likkewaan and a Casper. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Casper had been refurbished and was looking good even inside. I asked someone about the refurbishment and they think that it was done for the soccer world cup. Interesting thought! The other two armoured units are still in the disused state when I last saw them.
My ankle is very swollen and I can hardly walk. A large bruise has formed on the inside of my shin. That's what you get for having a bike accident. I suppose now I know how Carol feels with the pain from her leg. I don't have much motivation to take photos so I quickly snapped one during lunch. It is the only photo I took today. This set looked freshly painted with no graffiti anywhere.
Today Prasa launched the first mobile police station based on a train unit. If I remember correctly Lucky Montana, CEO of Prasa, said that they planned to make 6 of them.They will be used with the Shosholoza Meyl on their long distance corridors. The mobile train unit has a charge office, kitchen, sleeping area, shower and small two cells. I asked one policeman how people can they hold in the cells and he said about 15 as they don’t need to be comfortable. All getting ready for the 2010.
By the University of Witwatersrand I came across this mural depicting Metrorail trains and the Nelson Mandela Bridge with the Johannesburg skyline in the background. Enjoy.
The ICT department had our monthly meeting up in Pretoria again. Wits and Tshwane take turns to hosting the departmental meeting. So we caught the Tshwane Business Express to Pretoria. Before leaving I took the opportunity to chat to the driver and sit in the driver's seat of TBE1.
Today I went with José to test some equipment in the Premier Classe train with the idea of installing similar technology currently on the Tshwane and Gauteng Business Expresses. Here is a Class 34 diesel shunting the Shosholoza Meyl coaches past the interPAX and Premier Classe coaches. In the background you can see the Nelson Mandela Bridge.
Wow, what a early start. I had to be at the Pretoria Station at 5am for the introduction of the Gauteng Express. That meant that I had to leave home at 4 just to get there on time. Well I made it and all I wanted once arrived was a cup of coffee. Today’s photo is the TBE1 on the left and the new Gauteng ExpressTBE2 on the right. We were slightly delayed because of the Minister of Transport arriving late but we made up the time an arrived on schedule for the launch. It is exciting times with everything coming to head as we approach the start of the Confederation Cup soccer kick-off in just under two weeks.
The ICT Department at Metrorail Gauteng South caught the Tshwane Business Express to Pretoria this morning to meet with the Gauteng North ICT people. Since we have merged into one Gauteng department this is the first time I got to meet some of them. It was my first trip in the TBE although I have been in the older Soweto Business Express a couple of times. As the TBE passed through downtown Johannesburg I was a bit disappointed in the litter and rubbish strewn along the rail reserve. This needs urgent attention as we don’t want our 2010 visitors seeing this.
Sophia, my Vespa, is due for her big 12,000km service next week but yesterday on the way to Metrorail she started to make a rattling sound from the general area of the engine. It sounded like a plate had come loose. On the way back it got even worse. She sounded so bad that I had to call the service centre who came and picked her up today. It broke my heart hearing Sophia sound so sick and I was feeling down all day. I had to use the Mercedes to Metrorail today which meant that I had to park on Platforms 11 and 12. Here is a shot from my parked car.
It was a quiet day at Metrorail with all the permanent staff in Pretoria getting to know the new Regional Manager. But I had a lot of catching up to do and the less people interrupting the better. It was quite a nippy day and when I needed a break I took a walk outside in the sun. While on my break I took a few snaps of the Shosholoza Meyl’s electric units.
I overslept a bit this morning and I think that it will take a few sleeps to be right as rain. Anyway here is the vehicle wagon or cookie monster as I call it swallowing up cars at Park Station. I do like that silver SLK.
Finally the South African Rail Commuter Corporation officially changed its name to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa. They had a big function at Park Station and had even painted some vehicles and a train set in the new colours of PRASA. Thank goodness the ugly brown of SARCC is gone.
Shoo wee, I don’t know how I made it to the weekend. I need a holiday to recover from the holiday I that I’ve just been on. Today’s photograph is taken just outside the office at Wits Metropark. I then took the photo and applied a tilt shift affect to it. This affect gave it a scale model look.
Another hot, sweltering day at Metrorail and with no air-conditioning it didn’t help. The afternoon thunderstorm did little to help. With Metrorail’s save electricity policy, I should go to work in shorts. A break in my routine happened when security had to scan my index finger’s print for Metrorail’s new biometric security system.
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