SIGNALLING a new beginning for their country and its railway system are engineers Anita Padayacha and Tshepo Kgobe.

The two South Africans are on a steep learning curve as guests of Corus Rail Consultancy, the rapidly-expanding York-based railway engineering design company.

Both have come from Metrorail, the metropolitan commuter service in Durban, Natal where she was a signal engineer and he was a civil engineer.

They were offered the course with Corus through the British consulate in the Republic.

Anita has spent six months as a trainee engineer within the signals division of Corus, and Tshepo has spent the time sharpening up his skills. Both will be soaking up the nuances of the railway industry in the United Kingdom until October.

Anita said: "My work at Corus has focused on signalling but I have been fascinated by other aspects such customer service as the greater extent of information available to passengers in the UK and the fact that you can even book a rail ticket on the Internet.''

"In South Africa rail transport is not a primary option for most people who tend to use taxis and our industry is not on a par with the UK in terms of speed or quality of rolling stock."