African railways consider buying locos in bulk

THE POSSIBILITY of buying locomotives and rolling stock in bulk as a bloc was one of the proposals on the agenda at last week’s Union of African Railways conference in Vanderbijlpark. The concept would offer the financial benefits that flow from economies of scale although a number of practical issues would need to be addressed before implementation, UAR president Siyabonga Gama told FTW. As it celebrates its 35th year in existence, the UAR is revisiting its historic mission and reassessing its relevance and vision, said to Gama. One of the major achievements of the past year, in his view, has been the acknowledgement by members of the need to change direction. “There has been a tendency to discuss issues without doing anything about them. "We have now put together working groups responsible for publishing best practice guidelines on specific issues. We had a huge agenda which we have now broken into three critical issues – infrastructure and rolling stock, human resources development and operational improvement.” Integrated networks and the need for borderless and boundary-less economies were key discussion points, he said. “If we look at the movement of people and freight, the AU is beginning to move towards removing borders but there are challenges because some countries are not at the same level as others “We believe that common documentation would go a long way to facilitating the process and that’s one of the practical issues we are addressing.”