Freight industry sceptical about high-speed rail plans

The building of a
multibillion-rand, highspeed
rail link between
Durban and Johannesburg
– which would cut transport
times from about 12 to
three hours – is included
in the national transport
master plan 2050.
Transport minister,
Sibusiso Ndebele, said
he would be asking the
Cabinet in this financial
year to approve a feasibility
study for a rail link which
would make the R25-billion
spent on the 65-kilometre
Gautrain line seem like
chicken feed.
He told a press
conference that the details
of the ambitious project
were being finalised.
Freight transport also
entered his thinking,
Ndebele saying that a
fast link between Durban
and Johannesburg would
encourage the move from
road to rail on what was
the country’s busiest, most
congested route.
The freight industry has
welcomed the idea, but
expressed serious doubts
about SA being able to
justify the cost – and even
about the feasibility.
Vishnu Reddy, chairman
of Railroad Africa,
suggested that there was
quite a difference between
pipe dreams and reality.
He told FTW that he
would reserve his comments
until he saw a white paper,
or some other plan with
all the details in black and
white.
Instead of having such
a high cost plan, Reddy
hinted that it might be
more financially feasible to
change the current narrowgauge
rail line (which
suffers from frequent
derailments) to a widegauge
rail track on the
Johannesburg-Durban route.
Lawrie Bateman, MD of
MSC Logistics – another
major user of rail transport
– also expressed doubt.
The idea of such highspeed
freight rail is
“fantastic”, but not really
justifiable, purely from a
financial viewpoint,
he reckoned.
“I can’t see anything
coming off, certainly not
for the next five years,”
he said. “That budget has
already been committed
on what needs to be spent
on new locomotives and
wagons for the present
rail network.”