Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has pinned hopes of increasing volumes of agricultural produce on its Cape Corridor on accelerated implementation of third-party access to privately-owned train operating companies in a bid to boost economic activity.
This comes as TFR conditionally awarded slots to Traxtion Sheltam on the Kroonstad to East London route on the Cape Corridor following a successful completion of the first stage of the evaluation process to operate on the advertised parts of the TFR rail network.
Traxtion Sheltam is a cargo, freight, locomotive hire and repair company based in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), and has been delivering rail solutions in sub-Saharan Africa for more than three decades.
TFR’s contract with Traxtion is expected to start on April 1, 2023 after the private operator has completed the rest of the application process which entails fulfilling the Rail Safety Regulator requirements and other operational readiness requirements.
TFR acting chief commercial officer Bonginkosi Mabaso said, “The type of goods that Traxtion is expected to move on the Cape Corridor are agricultural produce.”
The Cape Corridor presents opportunities for and is focused on enabling initiatives to grow automotive, containerised fruit, manganese, and cement volumes, with the main commodities transported being manganese, titanium, lime, malt, barley, grain, fertiliser, zirconium, wheat and maize, among others.
“However, we want slots to be optimised and for that reason, if there is any other cargo that the bidder comes up with, they will optimise and ensure that we achieve full use of the slots. But for now at this stage, it’s agricultural goods that are on the cards,” he said.
South Africa’s Draft White Paper on National Rail Policy (NRP, 2017) positions access to third-party Operators to the TFR railway infrastructure network as the crux of South African rail reform.
However, no applicant met the stage 1 evaluation criteria on TFR’s Container Corridor, which moves goods from the Port of Durban to inland in the City Deep in Johannesburg.
TFR said this was because the Container Corridor requires bidding train operating companies to have electric locomotives for the operation, and none had them.
The Container Corridor plays a key role in the value chain of growth sectors namely intermodal, manufacturing, automotive and agriculture sectors.
For this reason, TFR is prioritising this corridor and other routes conveying intermodal, manufacturing, automotive and agricultural goods to pilot third party access for 24 months in the period between 2022 and 2024.
TFR CEO Sizakele Mzimela, however, was optimistic that failure to obtain a third-party operator was not a setback for the company, but indicated instead that it would give them enough time to fix the damage caused by the floods on the line.
Mzimela said TFR was already granting access to third-party operators on its corridors, especially providing network for long-distance passenger rail services as well as haulage capacity for other private passenger services.
“The Container Corridor was badly damaged by the floods earlier this year, so we have been doing a lot of work and investing a lot of money and time in making sure that we are restoring the system to what it was previously,” Mzimela said.
“We are excited that with the work we are currently doing on that Container Corridor, we will end up with far more slots that we had even prior to the floods, but those will be in place at the end of March, hence we were talking about providing access from the 1st of April.
“What that means is that it will actually provide us with an opportunity to run on the system which is a lot more efficient, and we will in the future be coming back with the second round of third party access.”
BUSINESS REPORT