Travel

Train travel in South Africa

South Africa is a highly functional and sophisticated society, and this is reflected in its rail services.
Comprehensive urban and inter-city networks exists and all the main centers hosting matches in the upcoming Fifa 2010 World Cup tournament will be linked by some level of passenger rail services.
The South African rail system is publicly owned with a variety of different operating services.
Rail travel in South Africa, with a few exceptions, has tended in the past to be the preserve of the masses, with very little in the way of safe and reliable services to tourists and the motorcar commuting public as a whole.
This began to change a little with the advent of majority rule in 1994, and will change far more radically as a consequence of the Fifa World Cup Tournament to be staged in South Africa in 2010.
Acomprehensive urban mass transit rail system Metrorail is an urban commuter rail system that has been in existence in one form or another in South Africa for many years and has tended to be better in some urban centres than others. The system has of late suffered a diminishing reputation thanks to generally poor standards of safety and reliability, coupled with the added stress of high crime within the system.

Luxury train travel in South Africa
Luxury train travel is well covered by the Luxrail Blue Train This is one of the top three world rail travel experiences, which traces either the famed Garden Route or more directly through the Karoo between Pretoria and Cape Town.
Forget trying to get from A to B on the Blue Train. This is an experience unto itself, and with a single berth costing upwards of US$1500, this is certainly train travel par excellence.The suites on The Blue Train live up to its reputation for magnificence and splendour. The finest bed linen, marble tiles and gold fittings in the bathrooms and sheer opulence all ensure that guests will never forget the time they spend on The Blue Train.
When you choose to travel on The Blue Train, you choose to travel in a world of grace, elegance and romance.

The Blue Train Routes in South Africa
The route between Pretoria and Cape Town is a 27-hour journey of 1 600 kilometres (994 miles), through some of the most diverse and spectacular scenery offered by the African sub-continent.
On the southbound trip, the train departs from Pretoria main train sation at 8:50 and arrives in Cape Town train station at 12:00 the following day.
En route to Cape Town there is a stopover and excursion in Kimberley, where we take a step back in time to the days of the diamond rush.
On the northbound journey, the train leaves Cape Town at 08:50 and arrives in Pretoria at 12:30, in time for high tea the following day. It stops at Matjiesfontein for an off-the-train excursion.
On arrival at Matjiesfontein guests are invited for a glass of sherry at the bar.The Victorian buildings and original nineteenth century London lampposts impart to the traveller, the uncanny sense of entering a colonial time warp – an oasis suspended in a different age.
Guests are reminded that they must be at the station an hour before the departure time.