The South African Rail Commuter Corporation (SARCC) strives to provide a quality service to rail commuters through its operator Metrorail, despite the financial pressures facing rail commuter transport.

The 1998/99 financial year was expected to be a difficult one for this mode of transport due to a substantial initial shortfall in the available subsidy allocated by central Government. In a quest to uphold the services, the SARCC, Metrorail and Intersite embarked on a cost saving exercise and managed to collectively save R100m for the 1998/99 financial year. These savings will be mainly brought about by the recent reductions in certain off-peak train schedules countrywide. SARCC's representations to Government on the repercussions of the situation, have resulted in an additional grant of R100m from Government. These initiatives still leave an expected shortfall of some R300m on the 1998/99 budget.

Further representations to Government have been made late last year and it is trusted that the funds to bridge the current 1998/99 shortfall will still be provided by the fiscus.

More reductions in the available subsidy for commuter rail in the future may however lead to the closure of certain underutilised rail lines and a further reduction in off-peak services especially where alternative transport modes are available.

The SARCC is the Government agency responsible for the management of rail commuter assets and the subsidy. It is also charged with the responsibility of implementing concessioning of rail commuter transport, in line with the new government transport policy.

Concessioning is expected to bring private sector advantages to the business and help to further curtail operational as well as capital costs. The SARCC envisages a significant improvement in service provided to commuters once concessioning is in place. To advance our commitment to rail commuter development, the SARCC has initiated a programme of introducing new trains and upgrading old rolling stock, apart from numerous capital projects to improve the infrastructure and stations in countrywide.

Commuter rail is still the cheapest mode of public transport in South Africa and it moves over 2 million passengers daily. This, therefore, renders the service indispensable in our country.