Photography - official positions.

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

I will go and sit at N1 City on Friday and wait. I was thrown off De Grendel station because suddenly you need a permit to take photos at any Metro station.

[Barend Botha]

...because suddenly you need a permit to take photos at any Metro station.

I have written a whole letter to Transnet requesting their policies regarding taking photos of Transnet and Metro trains. They replied saying that I must sign a agreement that, should any of my photos or videos be used to place them in a negative light I can be held liable. I replied saying that I agree with their terms. To this day( 2 emails and 6 months later) I have not received any feedback from them...

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

Interesting. After making many calls to Metro I spoke to Riana Scott, who told me it was from a safety point of view. A German tourist was run over and killed between Kalk Bay and St James last year. He was standing on the line whilst recording. I have now been directed to Metro security at Belville station so I try again.

[Chris Janisch]

In all my wanderings over railway lines I have hardly ever been questioned. Even Metro security didn't bother us in the Cape. As long as you don't look suspicious and wear a hi-viz when crossing lines they should leave you alone.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Metro Security at Roodepoort hunted me down one day alongside the line. Wanted to know what I was doing. But they were polite and then left me alone.

I will also contact Transnet/Metro and see what develops - we need to prevent paranoia develping amongst the authorities, as well as clarify the situation - after reading Barend's post a different tack is coming out!

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Just a consolidation of what is posted so far.......

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

See also here...

http://railwaysafrica.com/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=35

[Barend Botha]

Would be nice if we can all know what the "rules" are.

Last year a friend and I were waiting for a Rovos train heading east trough Capital Park at the pedestrian bridge. I had my "Yellow safety jacket". I wast later asked by four security guards to leave. I told them that I'm waiting for a steam train and that I will leave when it had passed.

I will not go into all the detail but I was later threatened with arrest and at one point a rock was picked up and pointed to my car after I refused to leave as they could not give me a reason as to why I should leave, and asking them whay I'm not allowed but you are allowed to walk through the rail yard taking short cuts to the Metro Station.

Spoornet staff then said we could stay when I asked them for help on the situation.

At the bridge is a brand new sign that, according to me, states that anyone is allowed on the premises?? (The security said the sign is not valid by the way...)This exact sign by the way will be found on the wall next to the main door at the railway museum in George.

[Dylan Knott]

Phoned TCO at Van der Stel this morning to ask if I can photos of metro trains crossing. No worries from them and was even told where I could stand to take "perfect shot". He suggested Firgrove as best spot as S.west only used for crossing Business Express. This train has an odd livery but photos will be taken next week.

[John Ashworth]

Off topic slightly, but it reminds me of when I was in Bulawayo in 2000 standing on the platform taking photos of the Garratts shunting. A uniformed inspector of some sort came up to me and asked me why I was standing on the platform when I could get much better pictures if I walked across several tracks and stood by the lineside. I promptly did so, and within a few minutes the driver of one of the Garratts had called me up onto the footplate for a ride around the balloon.

[Nathan Berelowitz]

The security employees were following the written code"not responsible for death or injuries etc...!! "

[Derek Walker]

Interestingly enough when I first visited Millsite the security lady had no problems with me visiting and looking at the locos, but the 2nd visit had a different security lady and she got officious that I needed permission. The only problem was that she had no idea who to speak to to get permission, and nobody in the whole depot could help. Eventually I signed a disclaimer with their safety rep and was issued a yellow bib and off I went. But it would help if some sort of official letter was available for bona fide photographers. We used to have one for when we haunted the harbour in Durban during the 80's, but I believe that the police are very busy arresting photographers in the harbour now.

[Luca Lategan]

Came across this post that died. Earlier this year I went to 1 Adderley Street to the fifth floor and spoke to the Risk Manager of Metrorail, Mr Andries van Rensburg. He was very polite and I told him that I would like to take photo's of the Stellenbosch loop's Van Schoor Machines and Semaphore signalling for my own records because of talk about CTC at Koelenhof etc. He thought for a few seconds and then gave me a "Site Access Certificate" for two weeks during the teacher's holiday, nobody could say anything and was more than happy to talk to me and let me stay in the cabin / on the tracks for as long as I wanted to, don't know where you Valies would need to go, possibly the Carlton centre?

[Derek Walker]

I went to park staton in JHB to take pics and while I was in the parking lot I was accosted by a security guard that proceeded to berate me about taking pics inside the station. I then asked him where was the sign prohibiting me from taking pics and he said it was inside the station building. I then told him that I had not gone into the building and there was no similar sign at the entrance to the parking. Eventually we compromised and I told him that I was after the plinthed loco that used to be outside the telecomms building. He admitted he did not even know what a steam engine was! Lucky I had pics from an earlier foray and could enlighten him.
I do respect the fact that these guys are actually doing their job, but what are you going to do about passengers seeing relatives off on the train? or tourists taking pics? the same problem exists in durban harbour. There are more cops hiding behind bollards in the harbour than there are in durban city.

[Luca Lategan]

That's how ridiculous the whole situation is. We went for an outing to St. James on 2nd January 2008 (boxing day, but not an official public holiday, so not many passengers on a normal weekday schedule).

On the southern line there was the usual crowd of police officers all in one coach, while they were chatting away and not at all ensuring that the passengers are safe one of them said to an aunt that was accompanying us that SHE must say to me that I am not allowed to take pictures of my family sitting in the train! They said that I was only allowed to take pictures if I have the special hop-on-hop-off ticket for the Southern Line @R25, what bull is this? This is definitively not an official arrangement.

On Cape Town station I wanted to take a picture of my brother in front of Blackie (a National Monument that belongs to the people of South Africa!) One security woman came along and said that I was not allowed to take pictures of the loco (not even the plague) and if I wanted to take pictures I must go to the station manager, unfortunately I didn't have time to waste on such nonsense. This was on a day that there was very little other commuters around so I was not obstructing passenger flow in any way, it was in the concourse so there was no security risk of being injured by a train and this is public property so why can there not be a picture taken?

It's completely ridiculous, Derek, that you were apprehended even before you went into the station.