CAPE Town – As the unwelcome guest, load shedding, comes to visit, it has brought more frustration as Metrorail struggles to get its Cape Town substations back in service.
Commuters are urged to make alternative arrangements.
In a statement released this morning, Metrorail spokesperson, Nana Zenani said the Eskom Tafelbaai substation feeding its substations are failing to come back into service.
She said this happened after the struggling power utility implemented load shedding on Monday.
All Cape Town train lines have been affected.
“The net effect is a wide-spread malfunction of Metrorail substations feeding power to move our trains which run on electricity.
“Metrorail is left with no other alternative but to suspend its services while Eskom is currently busy fixing the problem on their side.
“Metrorail apologises for this unforeseen problem from Eskom's side,” Zenani said.
She said Metrorail will update commuters on the ongoing status of the service.
On Monday, the power utility announced Stage 2 load shedding from 5pm until Wednesday after its Unit 3 broke down at the Medupi power station.
In a statement, Eskom cited multiple generating unit failures over the past 24 hours which included units from the Matla, Kendal, Matimba, Kusile and Grootvlei power stations which were tripping on Monday morning.