DoT plans for branch lines “waste of time”

The proposal from the department of transport (DoT) to part-privatise branch lines of the rail network is “a waste of time”, according to Lawrie Bateman, MD of rail specialists, MSC Logistics. Added to its master plan to split SA’s rail infrastructure from Transnet into a separate state utility and to support the draft policy on branch line privatisation currently before cabinet, the DoT is still not taking privatisation far enough. Bateman and other previous commentators on the issue have all suggested to FTW that the primary aim would be for the private sector to get an involvement in the country’s main container rail route between Gauteng and the Port of Durban. “There are one or two branch lines which might have some prospects for major industries on the routes,” said Bateman. “But the rest would go to property developers looking for land.” Indeed, he added, most of the branch lines that used to litter the country now don’t really exist. “A lot of them have had their tracks torn up and only exist on paper.”