The umpteenth media tour of South Africa's Gautrain-in-progress, on Thursday, was in many respects a familiar affair to the 30-odd guests.

At the Johannesburg offices of the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA), spokesperson Barbara Jensen welcomed print, TV and photojournalists like an experienced camp counsellor, greeting all with warmth.

Proceedings began with a lecture on safety delivered in the tone of a schoolmaster taking no chances.

Risk assessment

"What is a risk assessment?" asked health and safety manager Hennie Kruger.

A picture of two dogs, one massive and the other small, nose to nose is displayed on an overhead screen.

Kruger said the small dog had not done a risk assessment as he was about to be mauled by the much bigger dog.

"However, the big dog has also not done a proper risk assessment because he could swallow and choke on the little dog."

This, apparently, is a risk assessment.

"He says the same thing every time," a seasoned photographer notes wearily.

After so many media tours, one gets the sense that photographer could as well have given the safety lecture himself.

After the warnings about construction vehicles (watch out for them), barricades (don't go beyond them) and safety (risk assessments, remember?) it's time to suit up.

Hard hats and steel tips

GMA provides the necessary safety gear, hard hats, reflective vests and steel-toed shoes.

While the scruffy photojournalists put the gear on without complaint, television journalists only reluctantly cover perfectly coifed hair with hard hats and exchange felt-trimmed heels for boots.

GMA has arranged this tour to show the public or close they are to completion, to feed the imagination of what a finished Gautrain will look like.

The first stop is the Marlboro station. Its outer shell is complete, and concrete for 1200 parking bays is being smoothed.

Over the platforms are built glass and steel shelters made of white-painted steel rails which hang like the ribcage of a skeletal whale.

After Marlboro, reporters are taken along part of the track still being lain. A project manager Brian Sher points out a small track, 'a goat rail', which was installed 'at great expense'.

The goat rail was built with the sole purpose of assisting in the construction of the Gautrain, after which it will be disassembled.

More equipment is displayed and Sher points at an unlikely site, valuable copper lines, hanging for the stealing.

Copper lines are routinely stolen as they have considerable resale value. Sher says security guards protect them now but once Gautrain is completed, theft will not be a problem.

"That has 2500 volts. They're not going to try and take that."

"They might try it once but that's it," Sher concedes.

Flashback to Kruger's safety instructions where he warned that a 200 volt shock could upset your heart's rhythm.

"Hundred times that cooks your body from the inside."

Copper theft copout

Clearly, would-be copper thieves will need to complete a risk assessment.

From the track, it's on to Rhodesfield Station and a fear-of-heights challenging climb up a scaffold.

In this part of the tour, reporters walk about two kilometres to the station at OR Tambo.

This takes about 15 minutes, practically an eternity compared to the 'couple of seconds' Sher claims the Gautrain will take for the same trip.

What waits in OR Tambo is a nearly completed station. Pristine tiles have been laid and state-of-the-art ticket machines are seen where they have been on display since the site was visited by VIPs earlier this year.

"Spare no expense," murmurs one journalist to himself. "Everything is world-class."

Sapa

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