1 Joanna Hock - 2 years ago
Don’t take the train: We nearly died!!
We were travelling on the premier classe train from Cape Town to Johannesburg. The first day was a great experience but when we woke up the next day we were already running 7 hours late and it kept getting worse. Most of the line is single track so you have to wait to let other trains through.
At about 930pm we were all fed up and anxious about arriving at Joburg station 10 hours late in the dark. At this point our train collided into the back of a stationary freight train, the lights went out and our cabin crumbled around us leaving us trapped under debris. As we could hear the lady in the cabin next to us screaming “my legs are burning” we panicked that the train was on fire and scrambled to get out. Somehow, with help from other passengers we did! The couple next to us were not so lucky: she is in hospital seriously ill after being trapped for hours and her husband sadly died.
As you can see from the attached picture our carriage had been thrown off the track and was close to tipping over, if it had I’m sure we would all now be dead. As the passengers in our carriage rushed to get off the train one of the crew members shouted to stay on the train as if we got off the people outside would rob us or worse!!
The next few hours are a blur of chaos and incompetence as we eventually were allowed off the train and abandoned at the roadside for hours. It became obvious no one had control or even any idea how many people should be on the train. At one point someone approached my partner to tell him I was deceased! Eventually at around 2am we left the scene with some lovely people who owned a hotel other passengers were staying at. There was no assistance or concern from anyone supposedly in charge.
Perhaps what has shocked and disappointed me most is the lack of care or follow up. No one has checked to see if we are ok. I contacted them to see if we could retrieve our trapped luggage with limited response. We attended Joburg station to see if they had found our belongings and the attitude there was disgusting. We were told “you can’t be angry as accidents happen”.
It is quite clear that this crash is not a shocking event or tragedy in South Africa as crashes frequently happen and are often not even reported. In conclusion, don’t take the chance so please don’t take the train and think seriously about taking any train in South Africa. This would have happened even if it had been the Blue Train or Rovos Rail.
