(a)
Table 1: Passenger Volumes: 2017/18 – 2021/22
PERIOD |
COMMUTER NUMBERS |
2017/18 |
269,925,897 |
2018/19 |
208,888,587 |
2019/20 |
115,417,417 |
2020/21 |
8,147,180 |
2021/22 |
16,699,332 |
(b) Income Generated during the last 5 years as a % of Opex
Table 2: Income Generated versus Opex and Subsidy
Table 2 above proves the reply given earlier that the income generated through fare revenue during the last five years only covered a portion (or 10%) of operational costs. The rest has been covered through subsidy which indicates a heavy reliance on state support to operate commuter rail operations.
The major cause for this decline is the vandalism and theft of our Rolling Stock and Network Infrastructure impacting significantly on the optimal operations and in turn revenue collection. This was as a result of the lack of security to protect our infrastructure and network. The level 5 lockdown regulations imposed to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-2021 completely halted the operations, easing to levels 3 and 2 into 2021-2022 with limited operations also contributed to revenue loss.