Gautrain's drill-icious drama: The bane of a borehole
"Someone decided to audition for 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'," said the Gautrain team as part of their statement on a disruption of services this weekend.
It's not every day you hear about a rogue borehole causing chaos on the Gautrain but that's exactly what went down this weekend.
MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela together with HoD Dr Thulani Mdadane & Gautrain CEO Tshepo Kgobe visiting the Gautrain shaft to assess the damage caused by a drilling activity at a residential place which led to disruptions of Gautrain services between Rosebank & Park Stations pic.twitter.com/UKhfnmjjPv
— GP Roads and Transport (@GPDRT_) February 16, 2025
As it turns out, some eager beaver decided to drill a borehole on private property above the tunnel, and, well, let's just say it didn't exactly go as planned.
The Gautrain team was quick to jump into action, deploying buses to ferry commuters between Rosebank and Park stations.
In a move that's got us all loving them even more, they took to social media to give us the lowdown on the situation – with a healthy dose of humour, of course.
"We've got a bit of a hole in the situation," they quipped. "Someone decided to audition for 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'... a little too close to our Rosebank-Park line."
While the Gautrain team worked their magic to fix the hole, commuters got to enjoy a scenic surface route.
To quote their digital team, “You may discover a new favourite coffee shop. Or a massive pothole. It's Johannesburg, after all.”
These are some of our favourite responses:
Remoakantse Kantse said: "Who drafted this 🤣🤣🤣🤣 You won’t see heaven… 🤣🤣🤣 I’ve been laughing from reading 'Oops'🤣."
"🤣🤣🤣🤣 who ever wrote this big up bro," Winston Dube commented.
"Nando's 2.0," shared Xolela Simo November.
But all's well that ends well. The Gautrain team confirmed, in yet another well-worded statement, on Monday morning that services between Rosebank and Park stations were back up and running following the "Great Borehole Incident of '25".
Here's what some social media users had to say:
Charmaine Joubert said, "Well done to the Marketing comms team for keeping us up to date with a sense of humour. Just love it!"
"The result of hiring ama2k, comms on fleek," wrote Vuk Uvale.
"I need this marketing team's energy on the daily, DANG the narration is on point!!! Come work for us.🤣🤣🤣🤣," Lyn King commented.
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