Premier Classe / Shosholoza Meyl: Routes Cancelled

[Oliver Krapp]

According to the quite reliable South African Railways on Twitter (https://twitter.com/SouthAfricaRail), several routes have been cancelled with immediate effect:

Premier Classe Johannesburg <-> Durban
Premier Classe Johannesburg <-> Port Elizabeth

Others have been reduced:

Shosholoza Meyl Johannesburg <-> Port Elizabeth: only Friday and Saturday, Wednesday is cancelled
Shosholoza Meyl Johannesburg <-> Durban: only Friday and Saturday, Monday and Wednesday are cancelled

On the other hand, additional coaches might be added to the remaining Tourist Class trains in December and January.

[John Ashworth]

Sorry to hear that. On the one hand they have an excellent product. On the other hand the trains are often running with very few passengers and one wonders how they make a profit or even cover costs. Seems like they need a comprehensive and creative marketing campaign. The PRASA representatives on my Premier Classe trip earlier this month told me that they are actually beginning to market it more aggressively. Hopefully it's not too late, as once you begin to withdraw services then the remaining services, however good they are, are less attractive because they are less convenient.

[Steve Appleton]

I also regret that these trains are being cancelled or curtailed. One sure way to lose market and often never to recover it is to make your products unavailable, unreliable, average to poor quality and/or inconvenient to use or obtain. People find alternatives and never return.

Premiere Classe told me the same story about launching agressive marketing campaigns when we travelled the Premiere Classe many, many years ago; not long after it was first launched and there were specials to be had. I might be blind and deaf but I have never seen nor heard any of that marketing either then or since.

So, SM and PC have two failings: poor marketing and sparsely-available products. For most consumer operations, that usually means a slow death, which we are seeing here. Unfortunately, being a state-owned enterprise with limited entrepreneurial skills or drive, it seems that much, if not almost all, of the government's subsidy goes into buying new stock and trying to continue to run loss-making trains. Little to nothing goes into the essential marketing that would attract paying passengers and a profit. Imagine how much marketing one could buy for the price of just one or two of those new Vossloh locomotives!

[John Ashworth]

S A INTERCITY TRAINS CUT