An Eskom mechanical issue has resulted in train trips on two major routes in Pretoria being cancelled until Monday. As a result, about 25 000 daily commuters have been affected

Metrorail spokesperson Lillian Mofokeng says commuters on the Pienaarspoort to Pretoria and Mamelodi Gardens to Pretoria routes are affected.

The cause is understood to be a blown transformer.

“Metrorail Gauteng has not been able to render train services for the past few days, and this equates to 28 train trips being cancelled daily. As a company, we move approximately 25 000 commuters daily on the Pienaarspoort line; this number excludes children who depend on the trains to get to school.

“Although we have been using several platforms to communicate with our loyal commuters, we cannot take lightly the impact that this unfortunate situation of suspending train services has on the customers’ pockets. Trains are mass-movers and very affordable.

She says that Eskom had reported a component failure at the weekend, which resulted in no power supply to Metrorail’s substations.

Mofokeng says Metrorail technical teams are engaging with Eskom technicians, but by earlier today there was no positive outcome.

She says the rail enterprise remains hopeful that Eskom will resolve the problem and restore power to bring back the much-needed train service to the people of Mamelodi.