The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) is expected to brief Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport on Tuesday on its strategy for dealing with attacks on its trains.

Cape Town’s railway stations have been beset by a string of train fires over the past several months, in addition to the vandalism of equipment and theft of cables.

Mayoral Committee Member for Transport Brett Herron has stated a few times that “a well-orchestrated and sinister force” appeared to be behind attempts to destroy the rail service.

“A total collapse of our Metrorail service is a prospect too ghastly to contemplate,” he said recently.

Metrorail spokesperson Zino Mihi told News24 last month that Metrorail required a minimum of 88 train sets to operate the service in the Western Cape, but that only 42 reliable sets were available at the time.

Regional manager Richard Walker said the rate at which the company was losing train coaches to arson and vandalism “now far exceeds the rate at which we are able to introduce coaches back into service”.

Prasa board chairperson Khanyisile Kweyama is expected to lead Prasa’s delegation in Cape Town on Tuesday.