Unhappy Customers

After struggling for a few posts to write in the plural for both of us, I'll just be Anne for today.

Today was the first day of lectures for my Rail Planning and Operations course, the first of about six courses I will take in the Transport Studies program at the University of Cape Town (see left: walking up the hill from middle campus to upper campus, you pass through this tunnel under a highway and come out in the middle of the rugby fields with a beautiful view up the mountain).  I came into this course fairly knowledgeable about urban and suburban rail systems in the United States on the operational level, but with very little technical background.  Not only am I learning a lot about the mechanics of rail systems, but I get to apply what I already know in a very different context.  For example, here are some of the differences between rail in South Africa and rail in the United States:

1) Rail in South Africa runs on a different gauge than rail everywhere else in the world.  In other words, the distance between rails is shorter here.  This fact has some implications in terms of the operational speed and radius of curves that trains can safely travel, but the main reason I mention it here is because in every conversation I have had so far about the differences between rail in South Africa and the U.S., the first thing I get asked is “Did you know that South Africa has a different gauge?”  

2) Urban rail systems  in South Africa were originally built as a cheap way to transport poor (black) workers from the townships to factories and mines.  They were a tool of economic control for the apartheid government.  (In many cases the rail lines were also used as a physical barrier between white and black neighborhoods.)  As a result, they still carry the legacy of that past in many ways – the areas served by rail are still in many cases the poorer areas, the system is heavily subsidized to keep fares extremely low, the trains are overcrowded and somewhat unsafe, and the ridership is about 86% black, 13% colored (mixed-race, South-Asian) and 1% white, compared to about 80%, 11%, and 9%, respectively, in the country as a whole.

In contrast, many urban rail systems in the United States were built to transport middle- and upper-class whites from expensive suburban neighborhoods to jobs in the inner city.  These rail lines might have stations every few miles in the suburbs, but then bypass city neighborhoods and only stop in the central business district.  Passengers today are mostly white, well-educated, and middle- to upper-class, and fares are correspondingly higher.  Trains are becoming more crowded now as gas prices increase, but for the past few decades ridership has been moderate since most potential passengers can drive a private car instead.

3)  When rail passengers in the United States are unhappy with the service they are receiving, they might write an op-ed piece in the local newspaper or call their state representative to complain.  When rail passengers in South Africa are unhappy with the service they are receiving, they burn train cars.