By Nangamso Mabindla
1 April 2008

RAIL commuters traveling between East London and Berlin will not have to wait for the afternoon train in order to go home as Metrorail Eastern Cape introduced an off-peak daily train service on 1 April.

Before the introduction of the off-peak service commuters would arrive at the Metrorail stations as early as 10am and have to wait for the afternoon train. The parastatal's Regional Marketing and Communications manager, Mamnkeli Ngam, said Metrorail management understood that rail was the backbone of passenger transport in the region.

"The new service will ensure that we achieve our mandate of providing commuters with the much-needed terrain service at affordable fares. The train will leave East London at 11am and arrive in Berlin at 12am. It will then depart at 12:25pm and get to East London at 1:26pm," said Ngam.

Ngam said a mini customer survey was conducted to see if commuters would welcome the service. "We used a questionnaire in English and Xhosa to solicit the views and ideas of our commuters in this regard. The response was good and thus confirmed our commitment to provide train services that respond to the needs and expectations of our customers."