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The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), a wholly State-Owned Enterprise of South Africa. It consists of three divisions and two subsidiaries and which is represented in the figure below.

The PRASA Engineering Research Chair is sponsored by PRASA ​​and thus solely focuses on Rail solutions for Passenger Services.

Metrorail operates in four of South Africa’s provinces, namely the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Western Cape. These regions operate independently of one another and report to the Metrorail Head Office in Johannesburg. Metrorail transports about two million passengers per day, thereby accounting for roughly 15% of the people using public transport daily in South Africa. They operate at 468 stations (317 owned by PRASA and 151 by Transnet), with the rolling stock fleet consisting of approximately 400 train sets, and with train sets varying in size between 8 and 14 coaches per train set.

Mainline Passenger Services operates long distance passenger trains throughout South Africa. Shosholoza Meyl currently services 21 routes between major destinations in South Africa. It carries over 3.9 million passengers per annum. Premier Classe is focused on providing luxury services on specific routes.