Metrorail charges pax to take luggage on board

[Steve Appleton]

Metrorail unbelievably charges for luggage taken on board its trains by passengers, possibly the only Metro system to do so!
This article was published in Johannesburg's "The Times" at
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/ ... id=1032467

Guard roughs up Joburg mom
Agiza Hlongwane Published:Jul 12, 2009

A Johannesburg mother travelling to Durban on a luxury train with her five-month-old baby is distraught after she was allegedly manhandled, handcuffed and bruised by Metrorail security at the Durban train station. Her only “crime”: failing to produce a parcel ticket when she tried to board her next train.

Now Helen Smith, a mother of three, has laid a charge of assault against Metrorail and says she fears what will happen to 2010 Fifa World Cup foreign visitors who will have to deal with “abusive” and “rough” security guards at train stations. Smith, 35, has also accused Metrorail of failing to erect signage informing passengers of the need to pay for their luggage.

Smith arrived in Durban from Johannesburg on Friday, with her three children, her 72-year-old mother and their four pieces of luggage. After travelling for 14 hours on Metrorail’s much-vaunted Shosholoza Meyl, Smith said, she incurred the wrath of a security guard upon their arrival in Durban when she pushed her luggage past an open gate next to the turnstiles, en-route to boarding the Doonside-bound train. She was stopped by security guards demanding to see her parcel ticket — a levy for onboard luggage, which cost R10 per bag. Smith said she had not been told about the extra costs before then. The guards then accused her of trespassing.

“When I went through the gate, all I wanted to do was to get my kids and my mom onto the platform. I said to (the guard) I’d come and pay the ticket. Instead, he grabbed my bag and pulled hard — my hand was really burning ... I told him to leave me alone and pushed him away. And he said, ‘I’m going to hit you.’ ” Smith demanded the guard’s name, but he refused to give it.

Metrorail spokesman Thandi Mkhize confirmed that there had been an “incident”. “We will investigate . If it is found that a hand was laid on the customer, we will have to take disciplinary action .”

[Steve Appleton]

The saddest part of this story is not so much the way this woman was allegedly treated (although, assuming this took place, I have great sympathy for her) nor the fact that Metrorail, in its crazy wisdom, charges for on board baggage (including baggage transferred by passengers from its own main-line trains where reasonable amounts of baggage are carried free) but rather the stream of invective, insulting, abusive and racist comments about the security guard and Metrorail that were posted to the paper's website by its own readers. Quo vadis?

[Derek Walker]

Chances are nothing will happen as usual, the incident will be investigated for the next 10 years until everybody forgets about it.... What amuses me is that I dont hear mention of providing clarity on what the policy regarding luggage actually is. Heaven help the tourists when they arrive and have thugs like that wielding the big stick.