Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) spokeswoman Nana Zenani has confirmed the train collision near King William’s Town today.
She said: “The unfortunate report is that one of our Shosholoza Meyl trains - which is our long distance train - was involved in a head on collision accident with a Transnet goods train.
At this point our priority is to secure those commuters that have been injured and make sure that they are transported to various hospitals for further and urgent medical care.
At this stage it still very early to determine the cause of the accident and this will form part of the bigger investigation.
We do not have an official number of how many people were in the trains as yet."
The accident follows a similar one last month in Johanneburg where Prasa woman employee was killed when a Business Express train rammed into a stationery Metro Plus train at Denver train station. More than 200 people were injured and one of the train drivers was airlifted to hospital.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters cancelled all meetings and rushed to the scene of the accident. She told reporters she had been devastated by the crash and asked Prasa to launch an immediate investigation to determine the cause.
"One accident should not deter people from using the passenger rail services. We always make sure that safety is the first priority. Every crash and accident gives us a lesson in terms of improving our services," Peters said at the time.
Update: Prasa confirms train collision
She said: “The unfortunate report is that one of our Shosholoza Meyl trains - which is our long distance train - was involved in a head on collision accident with a Transnet goods train.
At this point our priority is to secure those commuters that have been injured and make sure that they are transported to various hospitals for further and urgent medical care.
At this stage it still very early to determine the cause of the accident and this will form part of the bigger investigation.
We do not have an official number of how many people were in the trains as yet."
The accident follows a similar one last month in Johanneburg where Prasa woman employee was killed when a Business Express train rammed into a stationery Metro Plus train at Denver train station. More than 200 people were injured and one of the train drivers was airlifted to hospital.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters cancelled all meetings and rushed to the scene of the accident. She told reporters she had been devastated by the crash and asked Prasa to launch an immediate investigation to determine the cause.
"One accident should not deter people from using the passenger rail services. We always make sure that safety is the first priority. Every crash and accident gives us a lesson in terms of improving our services," Peters said at the time.
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