 Goten to take over running of trains from Persa. Boxburg, Goten Premier David Makuras said on Tuesday that the provincial government would soon take over the running of trains from the passenger rail agency of South Africa, Persa. Provincial government is now going to operate not just the buses, it's also going to operate the metro rails system. The provincial government of Goten is now empowered and there was also a law passed in parliament to urban regions to operate integrated public transport systems, Makuras said. Persa is going to be devolved to the provincial government. We are now going to be responsible for integrating Persa and the Gotrain. The new public transport system will just be like the Gotrain by standard, look and feel and efficiency. Speaking at the unveiling of TMH Africa's recently acquired rolling stock manufacturing plant, Makuras said that the provincial legislature had passed a law that would give the province powers to run the passenger rail system. In the last sitting of the Goten legislature, we passed the Transport Authority Bill, basically to create a single transport authority in Goten. The single transport authority that will be created out of the bill has been something that is part of our vision for a long time, Makuras said. It is going to integrate the rail system, the buses, the taxi industry into a single, more efficient and reliable transport system in Goten. The Transport Authority Bill, 2018, was introduced by Goten Mekpo Roads and Transport, Ismail Vadi, in August last year before the portfolio committee on roads and transport in the provincial legislature. Vadi had then said that a legally constituted transport authority will be a juristic entity and will transform the current fragmentation of public transport governance and better coordinate public transport operations in the province. The responsibility for planning, coordination, optimization, rationalization, and facilitation of public transport functions, authorities, systems and resources within the province will rest with the body once up and running. Last month, Makura and President Cyril Ramaphosa were stuck for three hours in a metro rail train during a 45 km ride from Mavapan to Boston in Pretoria during the election campaign of the African National Congress, ANC. Makura detailed the experience as a harrowing one. He said that modernization of the whole rail network system was critical as rail was the backbone of the South African public transport system in the national development plan. Persa, that is the commuter rail, is in big trouble. It needs to overhaul its rolling stock. In this country, many people use the rail system and at the moment it's not so much by choice. They use the rail system because it's the cheapest mode, but it's in terrible shape, Makura said. The big challenge is that in our rail, the rolling stock is old but also the infrastructure of the signalling system is old, maintenance is poor, the service itself is very poor. Trains must be the travel mode of choice, especially long distances.