Boland Blitz

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

The Boland Blitz runs once a day in both directions from Cape Town to Worcester taking almost four hours. Probably one of the longest Metro routes in South Africa

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Interesting - did not know about this one.

Is it the longest? Anyone know?

[Gabor Kovacs]

The distance between Cape Town and Worcester is 176Km.
Stefan is probably correct with his statement that the Cape Town to Worcester is one of the longest Metro routes in South Africa.

If one is lucky to board a through Metro service (all stations), which still takes place during certain periods, between Randfontein and Springs, on the Reef, the distance is 93Km.

Just for interest, had there been a direct Metro service between Pretoria and Vereeninging (via Germiston) the distnce would be 120km's.

Stefan, is the Boland Express an express train as far as Paarl, and then a "all station stopper" to Worcester?

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

No its all stations all the way. 46 stations in all. There are one or two sidings that they skip. I was not sure if you had a longer Metro trip in Gauteng. It takes 4 hours where your Shozoloza does it in three. One trip back from Worcester with the Red Devil we did it just under two and half hours.

[Luca Lategan]

Moerse vinnige eksprês hierdie BolandBlitz...

MetroBlitz covered the 70km's between Johannesburg and Pretoria vir Germiston in some 45 minutes (90km/h). The BolandBlitz is an all stations service between Cape Town and Worcester missing just one station namely Chavonnes. It does the 174km run in 3h23mins (50km/h). On Saturdays it's a bit faster (8mins). I talked to the guard one day on Cape Town and according to him it's suprisingly popular. At R372 for a 1st class monthly (almost 27 times cheaper than a car) probably worth the six hours sitting in a train daily through some of the prettiest scenery in the RSA :)

If you want to do the trip during daylight, it leaves Cape Town every Saturday at 14h05 arriving Worcester at 17h20.

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

The Malmebury express is also popular. They now run a train 3 times a week living CT at 08h00 returning around 12h00. They should think of something like that to Bot Rivier or Caledon.

[Luca Lategan]

Malmesbury sevice uses ex-MLPS coaches (with toilets) branded "Plus" for metroplus and some normal 5M2A coaches plus MLPS for metro class. Real cheap at R29 return from Cape Town. It only stops for 30mins at Malmesbury so not much time to do stuff there.

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

Not much to see in Malmesbury. Its mainly fo people that live out that way that need to come to town. I took photos of the Saturday train at Kaalbaskraal . See the Diesel section. That train was almost full, with a huge party on board.

[Luca Lategan]

Apparently Malmesbury has one of the most efficient Home-affairs offices in the Cape (20mins in and out), but it's a 10 min walk from the station so a half-hour wouldn't be enough to do an application.

BTW: Paarl Home-affairs is a 5 min walk from Hugenot station, 40 mins in and out to do application.

[Dylan Knott]

I like that idea to try this on the Caledon line. Trouble is they have a shortage of locos unless we can secure a class 33 from somewhere.

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

Luca you are right. When I needed a passport in 2007 I stood in a queue for 5 minutes. They are so on the ball there. There is a rail link to Atlantis. They were supposed to electrify it in 2004 to run Metro's down there. It would a huge portion of the West Coast population. They could still run a Malmesbury type of train. Get the vehicles off the road and passengers and freight on to Rail.

[Luca Lategan]

Yes Dylan your idea might work, but from a tourist point of view, not a Metro one. Cape Town to Malmesbury takes two hours for 78 km's which is already long. Cape Town to Caledon is 140 km's with a much lower line speed. PLUS the line misses the places where most of the daily commuters would come from, eg coastal towns near Hermanus, these people will have to take another form of transport to Botrivier (109 km from Cape Town via rail) or drive there themselves. Then you haven't taken the biggest concern into account which is that the N2 is much less congested than the N1 (plus it doesn't have the toll-road, well, not for now). You could probably do Hermanus - Somerset in 1h30 during peak with a car where the train would take 3+ hours. No business man would exhange his car where he leaves home at 7 to arrive at work before nine with a train where he has to be at botriver before five in the morning.

Sorry to blow your bubble, Dylan, there's a bigger chance that they are going to convert the second Hugenot tunnel to a rail one reducing Cape Town to Worcester by two hours via rail.

Get the vehicles off the road and passengers and freight on to Rail.

Stefan, the day the aboves comes true, I would say, "My work is complete, now I may die."

[Dylan Knott]

No, businessmen are certainly not the target either! Think you missed my point there. I meant a pax train, not an express like the Northern Express.

Dreams are free, reality is expensive.

[Luca Lategan]

I also didn't have a business express in mind, that isn't the only thing I have in mind. Normal pax (I hope this means passengers as in 'the masses' or volk) would also not want to sit for eight hours a day on a train when a taxi can do it in three.

How long does the goods take from Caledon to Bellville?

[Dylan Knott]

4 hrs. Commuter service here will never happen anyway.