Metrorail Western Cape is a commuter rail system operating in the Cape Town metropolitan area and surrounds, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The system operates as a division of the national PRASA, and forms part of the broader national Metrorail network.
The system serves the City of Cape Town, Drakenstein, Stellenbosch, and Swartland. It connects central Cape Town with areas such as Malmesbury, Paarl, Stellenbosch, Wellington, Strand, Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, and SimonâÂÂs Town. Some areas, including the Atlantic Seaboard, Durbanville, and parts of Blouberg do not have rail access.
Annual ridership totaled 22.7 million passengers for the 2025 financial year.
In 2017, the City of Cape Town suggested that it be allowed to directly manage the local Metrorail network. This followed years of decline in passenger numbers while the system was managed by the national Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). The City criticized PRASA's management of what it said was the foundation of Cape Town's public transit system.
An investigation into the feasibility of the city running the local rail network instead of PRASA found that the City could not only return the rail service to 2012 passenger levels, but could also build new lines and provide around 54,000 new housing units on vacant or underutilized land around the city's 92 train stations. The City also said it could properly manage the 48 hectares of leasable land that was managed by PRASA, and turn them into economic hubs.
As rail service quality continued to decline under the network's management by PRASA, the City of Cape Town's push for direct management of the system within its jurisdiction continued to increase. Indicative of the system's decline, the total number of trips operated by PRASA in Cape Town on an average weekday decreased from 444 in 2019 to 153 in 2022 (a 65.5% decline in three years).
In April 2022, Mayor of Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis announced that the National Treasury had given its support for a feasibility study into the City of Cape Town managing its own Metrorail network. Hill-Lewis noted the significant decline in PRASA rail services, highlighting the fact that the total number of train sets in operation had declined from 95 in 1995 to just 33 in 2020.
The Mayor confirmed that a tender had been issued by the City to operate the Metrorail system within the metro's jurisdiction. He further stated that the Constitution of South Africa supported the city's push to manage its own rail network. Hill-Lewis noted that the Constitution states that a municipality must be assigned a function when there is adequate capacity at the municipal level to perform said function, and when there is an agreement between the national and local governments. The Mayor called this "functional federalism".
A plan for the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality to directly manage the Cape Town Metrorail network was formally submitted to the City Council in December 2024.
A Rail Business Plan for devolving Cape Town's Metrorail management from PRASA was approved by the City Council in December 2025. Devolution would depend on funding from the National Treasury. If the City was to succeed with its plan, it would become the first metro in South Africa to directly manage its own passenger rail network.
As of March 2025, 104 Metrorail Western Cape stations are operational, out of a total of 121. The system covers about 460 km of track. It operates on a 1,067 mm narrow gauge and uses 3 kV DC overhead electrification. All services either commence or terminate at the main Cape Town station in the centre of the city, which has 24 platforms.
The Cape Flats Line travels east from Cape Town as far as Maitland, then turns south through Athlone, rejoining the Southern Line at Heathfield. The service terminates at Retreat.
The Central Line serves areas to the southeast of the city centre. Trains run from Cape Town to Langa on two different routes, one around the southern side and the other around the eastern side of Pinelands. From Langa they travel on one of three lines, going either to Mitchell's Plain, to Khayelitsha, or through Belhar to Bellville.
The Northern Line serves the northern suburbs of Cape Town as well as some outlying towns. Some trains travel from Cape Town station to Bellville along the old main line through Salt River, Maitland, Goodwood and Parow, while others travel along the relief main line via Century City. After Bellville, trains run on one of three routes: through Kraaifontein and Paarl to Wellington; via Kuils River and Stellenbosch to Muldersvlei; or Kuils River and Somerset West to Strand.
There are also two longer-distance trains stopping at all stations en route daily. One along the main line to Worcester and at the longest possible route on a commuter train in South Africa. The other is the only diesel-hauled commuter train in the Western Cape to Malmesbury which travels on the route to Bitterfontein.
The Southern Line travels from central Cape town through the Southern Suburbs to Muizenberg, and then along the edge of False Bay to Simon's Town. Although Simon's Town is the southern terminus, many trains terminate at Fish Hoek because the line south of Fish Hoek is single-track.
Frequencies can vary vastly from weekday peaks to weekend-off peaks. Services to Simon's Town, Bellville via Century City, Strand, Muldersvlei (via Stellenbosch) and Wellington are less frequent over weekends with a train about every hour on Saturdays and every two hours on a Sunday. In contrast, weekday frequencies on some lines offer three-minute headways.
Every train displays a four-digit train number. The route and destination of a specific train can be determined by just looking at the train number. Up trains travel towards Cape Town and carry even train numbers, down trains travel away from Cape Town and carry odd train numbers. Destinations can be derived from the following table:
In 2013, PRASA signed a R51 billion contract with Alstom to supply 600 XâÂÂTrapolis Mega trainsets, with local production included. Older rolling stock (Class 5M2) is being phased out. By March 2025, 72 XâÂÂTrapolis Mega sets operate in the Western Cape.
Existing infrastructure (2018):