March 17, 2012
Cape Town to Johannesburg
Shosholoza Meyl Premier Classe
Cape Town – Johannesburg
Car 9 Compartment C
915 – 1110a +1

After a quiet night in one of Cape Town’s many hostels, I awoke to the sound of men working in the street below. My bed by the window provided a cool breeze last night and an excellent view on the activities below this morning. The men appeared to be moving the contents of an entire restaurant into a waiting truck. Chairs, tables and lots of boxes were being carried out, all accompanied by an excess of boisterous talk and laughter. It was 5:45am.

Somehow I managed another hour of sleep before throwing off the sheets and padding down the hall to the showers. Coffee and breakfast followed downstairs in the lobby. Three of my fellow hostellers were also up and excited about their upcoming tour out to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela spent eighteen years of his life. I have taken that tour myself back in 2004 and it is a must for anyone spending a few days in Cape Town. My taxi arrived at 8:00am and off we went to Cape Town’s Railway Station.

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Back in the bad old days of apartheid, South African Railways operated an extensive network of passenger services throughout the country. Back then, flying anywhere was expensive and busses were old, slow and not climate controlled. As a result, passenger trains played a much larger role in the country’s transportation needs. These days, air travel is much more affordable while modern, air-conditioned busses provide efficient and affordable transport around the country. Meanwhile, much of South Africa’s railbed and rolling stock have deteriorated and, as demand for rail travel has dropped off, many train services have been discontinued. Today, only six long distance passenger trains remain, all of them operating to or from Johannesburg.

All passenger rail services in South Africa are overseen by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, otherwise known as "Shosholoza Meyl". Loosely translated, it means “Pleasant Journey”. In addition to its normally scheduled passenger operations, Shosholoza Meyl also operate another class of service known as Premier Classe. This is an all First Class train providing a higher level of comfort and amenities than one would receive aboard the normal Tourist Class trains. Premier Classe is Shosholoza Meyl’s answer to South Africa’s famous Blue Train, and while it is nowhere near as luxurious or by extension expensive, the service and facilities are much, much nicer than those found on the normal trains.

My journey today is aboard Shosholoza Meyl’s Premier Classe train to Johannesburg. At 960 miles, it is the second longest passenger rail service still being operated in South Africa. The Blue Train’s run from Cape Town to Johannesburg and beyond to Pretoria is only 60 miles longer. This will be my third trip aboard a Premier Classe train though as ever, I’m as excited as if it were my first. Let’s head on into the station and get checked in!

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Many railway stations, especially those in transportation hubs such as larger cities, are architecturally quite grand. Given the historic impact of railroads in transporting humanity around the planet and indeed their role in spreading civilization to the hinterlands, most older railway stations are essentially monuments to the importance of transportation and the thrill of travel. Walk into any big city terminal with its high ceilings, polished floors and throngs of people coming and going and even if you aren’t traveling anywhere that day, a part of you can’t help but wish you were.

Architecturally, the building serving as Cape Town’s railway station is no more remarkable than most post World War II Communist era buildings found throughout Eastern Europe. Large and not at all inspiring in design, the building is more functional than attractive. Like the stations at Durban and Johannesburg it also serves as the main long distance bus terminal, effectively making it the city’s ground transportation hub. A large central hall serves the city’s commuter rail trains as well as the thrice weekly Tourist and Economy Class trains to Johannesburg. White linoleum and bright overhead fluorescent lighting create a utilitarian ambience that makes me want to get on a train as much to leave this building as to go somewhere.



Cape Town Railway Station Exterior



Cape Town Railway Station


Premium class services such as South Africa’s famous Blue Train and Shosholoza Meyl’s Premier Classe train share a separate departure lounge located next to the track from which those trains depart. Passenger check-in is located there, and the taxi driver, knowing that I was departing on the Premier Classe train, was kind enough to drop me off right in front of the lounge entrance.

Check in was pretty casual. A uniformed representative of Shosholoza Meyl was sat at a desk near the lounge entrance. He greeted me, crossed my name off a manifest and then handed me my boarding card along with an envelope that contained a welcome letter as well as information about the schedule of services onboard the train. No identification was ever asked for. My suitcase was tagged for delivery to my compartment and I was invited to take a seat in the lounge. Boarding would be called at about 9:00am.

As lounges go, this one was nothing special. That is to say it was little more than a medium sized room with a collection of comfortable chairs and low coffee tables. A couple of lounge attendants made the rounds with coffee and tea but otherwise customary airline lounge amenities such as non-alcoholic beverages, light snacks, newspapers and magazines were nowhere to be seen. I wandered down to a nearby store to purchase that morning’s newspaper, and then returned to peruse it over a cup of coffee until boarding was called.

Because the lounge was located trackside directly next to our train, boarding was accomplished quickly and easily. I was assigned to Compartment C in Car 9 which was located just three cars down from the lounge. All of the train cars were painted a medium shade of purple, offset by flat black roofs. Embossed in gold lettering along the side of each car was the title “Premier Classe”. Railroad staffs were busy washing and squeegeeing the train’s windows as we walked by.



Boarding Premier Classe Train


My compartment, though no larger than a similar compartment on Shosholoza Meyl’s regular passenger train service, had undergone a number of modifications that had made it substantially nicer. The walls had been re-paneled with rich brown native wood, the couch had been reupholstered in similarly attractive fabric and the window now featured curtains and a solid wooden pull down shade. Where the upper bunk used to be was now a wooden cabinet and shelf fixture. Stacked on the shelf were two thick, fluffy towels, a terry cloth robe and a pair of sandals for use when heading into the shower. Complimentary bottled water along with shampoo and body wash had also been supplied. Perhaps best of all, the compartment was now blissfully air-conditioned whereas the regular train compartments were not.



Car 9 ~ Compartment C


At the end of my sleeper car was a toilet and a shower. Conveniently located the next car up from mine was one of three bar/lounges on this train. Continuing on toward the front of the train, I passed through a dining car, a kitchen car and then another dining/lounge car followed by three more sleeper cars. The last car forward, next to the engine, was another lounge car reserved specifically for smokers. I took pictures of them all except the sleepers and the smoking lounge. It’s worth noting here that when it comes to taking pictures of the inside of railroad cars, the best time to do so is when the train isn’t moving.



Premier Classe Lounge



Premier Classe Lounge Booth Seating



Premier Classe Kitchen

Soon enough we were moving, rolling slowly initially and then ever more rapidly out of Cape Town past the usual collection of inner city detritus – old abandoned buildings, broken down railroad cars and lots of improperly disposed of garbage. On the outskirts of the city were the shanty towns – some nicer than others, which is to say that some of the dwellings were of no better quality than the forts I used to construct out of scrap lumber when I was a kid.


Cape Town Shantytown

Shortly after departure a steward came through each car requesting that all passengers meet in the lounge car for welcome cocktails, snacks and information about the journey ahead. I arrived in the lounge to find each table set with a plate of mixed nuts, potato chips and biltong jerky. I took a seat in an empty booth and was soon joined at my table by two more couples.

Lounge attendants served Champagne or orange juice, after which a selection of sandwiches and muffins were presented. Soon, the dining car steward arrived, introduced himself and his staff and then explained the meal times as well as lounge car locations and operation. Because there were only forty-one passengers riding the train today, there would only be one seating per meal. Tables were assigned for the entire trip and given the small number of passengers aboard, each group or individual got their own table. When the existence and location of the dedicated smoker’s lounge was announced, a small group of smokers let out a raucous cheer.



Premier Classe Lounge ~ Welcome Aboard Snacks

After the welcome and announcements, we were free to do as we chose until lunch. My table mates and I spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other. Don & Barbara were a retired couple from Cape Town who had never ridden the Premier Classe train before. Don said his work used to have him driving between Cape Town and Johannesburg regularly and riding this train was a definite upgrade over the long drive across The Karoo – the large arid region that makes up most of the middle of South Africa. Jack and Judy were an American couple doing missionary work in Zambia half the year and working with Habitat for Humanity in their home state of New Mexico the other half of the year. They’d recently returned to Africa from the States and were visiting friends in Pretoria before heading up to Zambia later that week. We chatted for a good two hours and polished off all the biltong and nuts before finally heading back to our compartments to freshen up before lunch.



Scenery Out Of Cape Town



Scenery Out Of Cape Town