PRASA makes progress with plans to build new rail link between Khayelitsha and Bellville-Strand lines
12-02-2025
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Cape Business News
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The rail utility has completed the feasibility study and the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Blue Downs Rail Link, which will connect residents in the largest residential areas in the city directly to Bellville, the second largest and most important work destination in Cape Town.
PROGRESS is being made with plans to expand the rail network in Cape Town, which will link Belville directly to Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain.
Train station development plans ready after key studies
The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) according to its 2024 – 2027 corporate plan says it has completed a feasibility study and the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Blue Downs Rail Link, a proposed 9,5km rail connection between the existing Khayelitsha, and Bellville-Strand lines.
This will see the link create a connection between the Nolungile station to Kuilsriver station.
Train station development to drive urban growth
The Blue Downs Rail Link is part of a strategy that will see the rail network link residents in the largest residential areas in the city directly to Bellville, the second largest and most important work destination in Cape Town.
The development of the link means that residents will no longer need to take a train to the city centre to get a connecting train to Bellville, and be in effect the rail equivalent of the R300 highway that connects Mitchells Plain with Cape Town’s northern suburbs.
“The link will service the greater Blue Downs community, and will be a fundamental component of the future metropolitan rail and transport network of Cape Town,” said the plan.
The investment in the rail connection will be substantial, as it will consist of a double line and will possibly see the addition of three to four stations.
The Blue Downs Rail Link has been in development since 2017. It was first proposed in the City of Cape Town in its Business Plan for the Assignment of Urban Rail report.
Back then the city saw the link as part of its Transit Oriented Development (TOD) strategy, which would see sustainable communities established along transit routes.
This means that aside from providing a quicker way to get to Bellville from Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, the city can drive urban development with newly established stations acting as growth nodes.
“The aim is to develop business plans for the development and re-engineering of each of the integration zones, with the rail corridors being the backbone and using TOD as the main driver to achieve spatial transformation,” said the report.
Though the Blue Downs Rail Link was first proposed eight years ago, governance issues at PRASA and numerous legislative and regulatory matters have led to delays.
The proposed line extension comes as the City of Cape Town has called for the National Government to relinquish control of the rail assets in Cape Town to it.
Train station development could save millions for commuters
The city is so committed to taking over it funded its own Rail Feasibility Study to assess the impact of such a transition. The findings of the study showed huge savings for the city’s residence.
“This Rail Feasibility Study has calculated that lower income households will save as much as R932-million per year by switching their daily commute to trains, and that a functional passenger rail service could sustain another 51 000 jobs in the metro while adding R11-billion to our local economy, said City of Cape Town Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, at the council meeting in December 2024.
Though it is still unclear when, or even if, devolution will take place, Hill-Lewis said the city had signed a signed full Service Level Agreement with PRASA in which it commits to targets for improvements to rail services, and also report into a joint steering committee with the City of Cape Town.
“This service level agreement – and the coordinating structure that gives life to it – will ensure the City is better able to exercise its constitutional role of integrated transport planning in the metro.”
Aside from the Blue Downs Rail Link, PRASA is also considering the creation of the 20km long Motherwell Line, which will connect it to the Nelson Mandela Bay CBD and a 11km link between Daveyton to Etwatwa on the East Rand, in Gauteng./
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