Thanks for the opportunity to reply on this article about the train tour from Jo'burg to the 2011 Amashova cycle race in KZN - being the organisers of the tour. Our company host about 160 train tours per annum to various destinations in Southern Africa. Some 8000 passengers travel every year with us. The majority of them are regulars, like cyclists traveling with us for the past decade to the Argus in Cape Town. This was our first train tour to the 'Shova and unfortunately the train DID run late - in both directions. This was due to technical problems with Shosholoza Meyl. No one likes being late, neither do us. Hence our apologies to all the on board passengers. The trains we use belong to our government. I.e.: Shosholoza Meyl. Sometimes they are spotless clean and the food good and sometimes not. We don't accept the latter either and meet with the authorities regularly to improve their services. It is a public train and was never advertised as exclusively to cyclists only. Neither can they be booked together in one carriage because each carriage has got only two 2-bed coupes and we had 6 coupes booked. Our company is well known for informing the passengers VERY well before the tour, as well as ON the tour, by means of complete Info Docs and a tour guide traveling along. This tour was no exception. Everyone on tour got to their places as advertised - albeit late! The walking distance from the overnight hotel to the point of departure by bus was about 300m! Breakfast was served as advertised. Our company will continue hosting train tours and keep Rail Tourism alive in South Africa, despite challenges put upon us by the authorities. Our sincere apologies to everyone being negatively affected by the 2011 Amashova train tour. Looking forward in hosting cyclists, supporters, family members and friends on the 2012 Argus train tour from Jo'burg to Cape Town. Bookings have opened. Regards. Johan Badenhorst, MP in P, JB Train Tours
