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.”