Cape Town tables Business Plan for passenger rail devolution
07 November 2025
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says the City aims to be South Africa’s first to take over passenger rail following the tabling of a detailed Rail Business Plan. The plan assesses the financial, operational and strategic viability of devolving passenger rail services to the City, and was presented to the Urban Mobility Portfolio Committee on 6 November, with City Council set to consider its adoption on 4 December.
The Business Plan provides a roadmap for how Cape Town’s passenger rail can be restored and expanded in future to serve as the backbone of public transport.
The Plan explored nine devolution scenarios, identifying the three most viable options. All viable options involve the devolution of rail services, associated assets and infrastructure to the City with the participation of the private sector operating services on a contractual or comprehensive concession basis.
The City’s Business Plan also rules out less viable devolution scenarios where infrastructure remains owned and managed by Prasa, and where the City operates the rail service rather than the private sector.
Crucially, the plan concludes that devolution is only possible with funding from the national fiscus, with no room within the rates base of the City to cross subsidise rail. The City also needs to have authority over fare-setting, access to long-term National grant-funding, and to generate local revenue through public-private partnerships and commercialisation. This is in line with the City’s constitutional mandate for integrated transport planning across different public transport modes.
‘With this business plan, Cape Town is now front of the queue to be SA’s first city to take over local passenger rail, in line with the Constitution and National White Paper on Rail.
‘We will now seek the City Council’s go ahead to engage National Government for the devolution of passenger rail and funding to run a high-quality, integrated public transport system in the Cape Town metro area.
‘Capetonians urgently need an expanded, affordable, and reliable rail service that is integrated with other forms of transport via one ticketing system. Devolution is one of the critical first steps in this long-term vision to massively scaling up passenger numbers, new train sets, new routes, upgrade stations, and develop surrounding precincts with affordable housing over the next two decades,’ said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
The Mayor further called on Transport Minister Barbara Creecy to make good on her promises to finalise the draft National Rail Bill and Masterplan before the end of the year, while ensuring that local government is properly consulted as the key implementing partner. The Bill, Masterplan and long-delayed National Devolution Strategy are vital policy pillars for devolving passenger rail to capable metros, in line with the National White Paper on Rail.
National policy and the Constitution both recognise that local government is best positioned to deliver integrated, affordable, and accountable public transport through coordinated planning across transport modes. The City also already has a clear governance structure for this informed by the City’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP), Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan (CITP) and Integrated Public Transport Network Plan (IPTN).
‘To ensure a viable devolution handover, it is necessary for Prasa and national government to restore failing rail network and operations to the 2012 levels of 620 000 daily passenger trips, which existed prior to the steady collapse of rail over the last decade. But while national efforts to restore passenger rail operations are ongoing, this does not remove the need to advance devolution in line with national policy and the imperative for locally responsive service delivery. The City would then work to further expand the rail service. In most scenarios this includes a new Blue Downs rail link and potentially further expansion dependent on the national fiscus,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee for Urban Mobility, Councillor Rob Quintas.
The City’s Rail Business Plan follows the inception phase of the Rail Feasibility Study, followed by a Baseline Analysis (October 2023) that assessed the current state of rail operations and infrastructure in Cape Town. This was succeeded by the development of the Alternative Institutional Options Report (October 2024), which identified and evaluated viable network and governance models. Following Council’s approval of the preferred institutional options in December 2024, the Business Plan Phase commenced in January 2025.
The Business Plan was developed using in-depth research into the state of the local rail system as well as stakeholder engagement to provide a credible basis for negotiations with national government and further long-term planning.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
