Trains in Cape Town seriously messed up today

The trains today in Cape Town seem to be very messed up. I was trying to reach the 8:10AM train at Monte Vista station. I was about one minute away when it arrived at 8:04AM. According to official documentation, passengers should try and be there five minutes before a train is scheduled to arrive in case it arrives early. Up to five minutes before or after the scheduled time is considered on time because of delays and catching up.

After that issue, I decided that I have time to walk the 25 minutes to reach the 8:30AM train at Vasco station and with that I would get to Salt River station which is one station away from Observatory station which is where I need to go. I got to Vasco station at 8:24AM, a train only came at 8:45AM.

At Salt River station there was already a big crowd waiting for the train. A bit more than ten minutes later a train came past and did not stop. Normally the intervals that time of the morning are fifteen minutes between trains. More or less fifteen minutes later another one came past that did not stop. After that I decided to walk the fifteen minutes to my work in Mowbray.

Trains are messed up again

Yet again I heard several announcements this morning at Woodstock station in Cape Town about trains being delayed or even cancelled. The time table at the moment is not ideal at all for those who get off at Esplanade station and walk the one block to Woodstock station to avoid the chaos and the masses of people at Cape Town station.

Walking from Kensington to Monte Vista in the rain

Two days ago, I had the fun and joy of falling asleep on the train and getting off two stations too early. The station that I got off at was called Kentemade which is in the Kensington suburb. The station looks nearly identical to the Monte Vista station that I normally get off at. The train stopped there and I woke up, both sides looked more or less correct based on what I could see. This was the last train for the evening. By the time I realised the station was wrong, the train was moving again.

After that story, I neded up walking toward Voortrekker road to head in the direction of Monte Vista, but I had to pass Facreton first and then through Vasco suburbs. Kensington itself can be a maze, especially at night. After many wrong turns, I finally got to Voortrekker road, then the rain started.

Much walking later with the rain coming and going, I finally reached Vasco, then heavy rain hit. Fortunately that was the last on the route. Since I was running about 40% of the route, the entire trip took 1 hour and 20 minutes.