The MetroBlitz

South Africa had a bullet train, the MetroBlitz, 35 years before President Cyril Ramaphosa first made his bullet train promise in 2019.

The MetroBlitz was an experimental narrow-gauge high-speed train which, during testing in 1978, hit 245km/h, setting a world speed record for narrow-gauge rail that remains unbeaten today. The project began in the 1970s, when Herbert Scheffel of the South African Railways (SAR) experimented with self-steering bogies (trucks), which paved the way for a high-speed passenger service.

The 245km/h record was achieved by one of the Series 4 locomotives, specifically number E1525, which was modified for experiments in high-speed traction.

It achieved the speed record while hauling a modified suburban coach on a stretch of track between Westonaria and Midway in Gauteng. Union Carriage & Wagon then manufactured the 3kV DC Class 12E electric passenger locomotive in Nigel, Transvaal, for the SAR. It was a modified single-cab example of the Class 6E1, Series 10 locomotive. The passenger locomotive was designed and built to haul the MetroBlitz.

The Class 12E featured a conductor’s cabin at the rear end and hauled specifically designed suburban passenger coaches that rode on air-sprung, high-speed Scheffel bogies and used disk brakes. The MetroBlitz, which officially entered regular service in January 1984, operated two locomotives per train, with one at each end.

However, the project failed after roughly a year of regular service. Its demise has been primarily attributed to logistical and economic friction.

Written by Myles Illidge

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Reprinted from the South African Association of Retired Persons.