By Nangamso Mabindla
21 January 2008

THE start of the first school term has caused the number of passengers in one of Buffalo City’s cheapest forms of transports, Metrorail trains, to grow significantly.

With many children from Mdantsane, 20 kilometres from East London, attending schools in town, there is frequent congestion at city stations. In one move to beat the problem, the commuter service has encouraged its customers to buy their train tickets on time to avoid congestion and delay caused by long queues in the main stations.

Metrorail regional communications and marketing manager Mamnkeli Ngam said that there were problems in the first week of the school term.

"If people do not book their tickets on time, we [are] faced with the challenge of having people coming to the stations to buy their tickets on the morning of their trip. This is a great inconvenience to both the commuter and our ticket officials," said Ngam, adding that buying weekly and monthly tickets saved money and time.

Buying single day tickets also posed a safety problem.

"Buying tickets on the morning of their trip poses a safety risk, because once they buy tickets they then have to rush to get into the train which spends a minimum of four minutes at each station. We call on our commuters to help us maintain a train service that is free of human injuries and hazards," Ngam said.

The congested stations are Fort Jackson, Egerton, Mdantsane, Mount Ruth and the main station in East London.