Metrorail implements brilliant solution to delayed train problem

Cape Town's Metrorail has come up with a brilliant solution to its train-delay problem. All the Cape Town lines: Southern, Northern, Cape Flats and Central have been running consistently behind time for many months. Worst-hit has been the Central Line, which at one point was not running at all. In such a case the new solution being implemented would not have worked. However, with the Central Line now back on track, albeit running 60 minutes late, the clever idea hatched by technical and IT experts at Metrorail can kick into gear for all lines. The solution is deceptively simple: with all the various lines running consistently late, between 20 and 70 minutes, Metrorail has simply shifted the timetables to adjust for the late runs. For example, the schedule now shows that the 7.20 train from Khayelitsha to Cape Town will only leave at 8.20 and all the other trains on the timetable have had their times moved forward accordingly. Says commuter William Lechaba: 'Like many brilliant solutions, this one is beautiful in its simplicity. Now I don't have to stand around for over an hour hoping that my train will move, never knowing when that's likely to happen. Now I know that the 7.20 is delayed until 8.20 I only have to rock up at about 8.10.' In one fell swoop the whole Metrorail timetable has been shifted to line up with the actual traveling times of the trains. So, instead of radio stations like FMR and Good Hope Radio dwelling on the delay times for Metrorail in their regular morning and evening traffic updates, they are simply able to note that Metrorail is running on time. This means they can spend more time on more pesky issues like road accidents, bus strikes and other hair-pulling events that plague Cape Town's hard-pressed commuters. Avers Juan De Bosco, who has recently settled in Cape Town from Buenos Aires: 'The time shift in Metrorail actually suits me quite well because it brings me closer to the quotidian cycle in Buenos Aires, which starts later in the morning and ends later at night. I'm not nearly so homesick any more, with this  adjustment.' Metrorail is still working on the Fish Hoek-Simonstown connection where no time-table, even one adjusted for delays, is available owing to bulldozers on the track.