Longer trains keep down Swazi rail prices

MBABANE – Swaziland
Railway is holding prices
down for customers by
initiating a variety of costcutting
initiatives, executives
told rail users at a recent
conference in Ezulwini
co-sponsored by the
European Union.
“Often we don’t increase
the cost of rail transport.
Over the last year we haven’t
done so. Yes, we are faced
with inflationary pressures
– fuel prices going up was a
key one – but we absorb that
cost. We make it up through
efficiency,” said Stephenson
Ngubane, CEO of Swaziland
Railway.
Businesses dislike
surprises, and Ngubane
said they operated with a
“no surprises” policy for
customers. If customers are
assured that the price for
moving their cargo by rail
will not suddenly increase
they can keep the same
budgeting consistent for the
next 12 months,” Ngubane
said.
“We are a government
company – a parastatal – but
we fully realise we must
operate on a commercial
basis. One innovation to cut
cost was replacing vacuum
brakes with air brakes,” he said.
Cost savings in particular
come from running long trains,
which will become the norm by
the end of 2015.
“Long trains allow more load
efficiency. On 18 September
2014 we had a test of running
150 wagons from Phalaborwa
through Swaziland:
engine, 75 wagons,
engine and 75
wagons. The test
was to see if the
line could take it.
We will definitely
have regular use
of long trains
by the end of the
year,” Ngubane
told stakeholders.
“It’s possible to have a train
with 200 wagons that is 2.5
kilometres long. Up to now
we have operated 40- and
80-wagon trains. If customers
are able to consolidate we can
do the bigger trains,” he said.
Bigger gets more respect by
South African rail controllers
who decide which trains
have priority passage. “The
treatment of small trains
is like the treatment of
step children. They
get pushed around,
not respected by the
operating personnel,
and placed on hidden
lines,” said Ngubane.
INSERT & CAPTION
We will definitely
have regular use of
long trains by the end
of the year.
– Stephenson Ngubane