Shosholoza Meyl


Shosholoza Meyl is a division of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa that operates long-distance passenger rail services. It operates various train routes across South Africa, carrying approximately 4 million passengers annually. Before 2009, Shosholoza Meyl was a division of Spoornet, but it was transferred after the formation of PRASA.
"Shosholoza" is the name of a popular South African song about workers on a train and it therefore means moving forward. "Meyl" is a word that is related to a South African word for "long distance train", according to the Spoornet/Shosholoza Meyl website. The company's name prior to change was "Mainline Passenger Services".
In August 2010, Shosholoza Meyl suspended services claiming either contract difficulties or unreliable trains. Some services began to resume in November 2010.
All Shosholoza Meyl services has been suspended indefinitely by PRASA since mid February 2020.

Routes

Shosholoza Meyl operates the following routes.
Shosholoza Meyl trains run on the Cape gauge Transnet mainline track. The trains are locomotive-pulled. Most routes are completely electrified 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC systems, usually class 6E1 or class 18E locomotives on the 3 kV system and class 7E on the 25 kV system. Diesel is used on the Johannesburg – Port Elizabeth trains between Bloemfontein and Noupoort, and on the Durban - Cape Town trains between Bloemfontein and Kimberley. Before 2002, the Pretoria – Cape Town trains were hauled by diesel locomotives between Kimberley and De Aar.

Consists

The trains are made up of three types of coach:
Since 1 July 2006 Shosholoza Meyl has operated its sleepers and sitters as separate trains. Starting from 1 November 2006 sleeping carriages were re-introduced on selected Economy Trains, this decision was however reversed shortly thereafter. Now the Economy Trains convey 'Sitter' carriages only.

Incidents

On 4 January 2018, a passenger train operated by Shosholoza Meyl collided with a truck on a level crossing near Kroonstad. The train was derailed and at least one of the carriages caught fire. Twenty people were killed and 260 were injured.
0n February 12, 2020, another Shosholoza Meyl train collided with a goods train near Bonny Doone Road in Horizon View, west of Johannesburg. One person died in the incident and several people were injured. After the incident, the Railway Safety Regulator suspended all Shosholoza Meyl train operations indefinitely.