Gibela Trains Presented By PRASA In Cape Town

On 9 April 2019 Alstom’s South African joint venture Gibela has seen two of its X’Trapolis Mega EMUs successfully revealed by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) to the residents of the City of Cape Town, the country’s legislative capital. The President of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, unveiled the trains at Cape Town station in front of more than 1,000 guests.

These trains are part of a batch of 600 new EMUs being built by Gibela for PRASA. The first 18 trains, currently operating in Pretoria, north of Johannesburg, were manufactured at Alstom’s Lapa factory in Brazil, forming part of 20 built there. Gibela’s new, modern train manufacturing facility located in Dunnottar (Gauteng Province) has started the production of the first trains made by South African people - the first three such trains (021 to 023) having been delivered to PRASA between December 2018 and March 2019.

The Gibela plant, inaugurated last October by the President of South Africa, has been built with the capacity to produce 62 trains a year at peak production (each trainset comprises six cars). Local suppliers involved in the supply chain in line with local content contractual commitments will gain manufacturing expertise which will enable them to compete in global markets, opening up real potential for significant exports and foreign exchange earnings for South Africa.