The dilapidated state of Firgrove Railway Station has worsened over the past year, owing to further vandalism and neglect. The station is now just a ruin.
Last year DistrictMail reported there was renewed hope for the facility following plans to refurbish it (“Light at end for Firgrove Station”, 8 March 2021), but to date nothing has transpired at the site.
According to Metrorail, plans to refurbish the station is still on the cards and should be in motion by next March.
“To refurbish a station that has been damaged follows a process in line with the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) and National Treasury Guidelines, hence, it seems that the process took long,” explained Zinobulali Mihi, spokesperson for Metrorail.
“To this end, the consultants have been appointed and preliminary designs have been prepared. The next step is to prepare detailed designs and thereafter, procurement of a contractor will follow.”
According to Ebrahim Rhoda, a long-time resident of Firgrove, the railway station is a landmark of the area and many share memories of using it in their school years.
“The community is losing out, especially now with high fuel costs,” he said. “The station is in a terrible state and it needs urgent intervention for the betterment of our people.”
Edwin Theunis, another resident, said the neglect and vandalism of Firgrove Railway Station has been a long time in coming.
“Even before the lockdown of 2020, lack of services, trains running late or being cancelled at short notice, vandalism and burglaries were all rife at Firgrove Railway Station,” he said.
“With lockdown it escalated, as there were no measures in place to safeguard the station. It was a free-for-all in terms of vandalism, cable theft, breaking the buildings down and basically reselling the structure to anyone who needed building materials.”
Post-lockdown there is no affordable transport system for the public to use to travel to and from work, Theunis added.
“This has put additional strain on already financially strapped commuters, who had to make alternative travel arrangements and spend more money that they could not afford to get to work.
“Apart from this, the dilapidated and vandalised buildings pose a safety-and-security threat as it provides a hideout for criminals. It is sad to see the state this once-beautiful station, which served Macassar, Firgrove and even Heldervue, has fallen into,” said Theunis.
According to Mihi, during the upgrade platforms will be salvaged and refurbished, and new buildings will be added as required for station operations purposes.
“The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) intends using the facility, hence the process of reinstating the facility has commenced,” she said. “Prasa has allocated funds for the refurbishment of Firgrove station in the current Medium-Term Expenditure Framework [MTEF] period. The budget cannot be stated publicly as it will compromise confidential tender processes.”
Asked about the lack of security at the station, Mihi said there is currently no shelter for security due to vandalism, but the security deployed at the Firgrove depot regularly patrols the area.
“
,” she assured, adding implementing safety measures is ongoing.
“We are working on a long-term plan to resolve the current challenges. The plan is to also put in place Alternative Building Technology (temporary structure) to house our security personnel.”
