New life is expected to be breathed into De Aar’s longdormant rail workshops and railway sidings as Transnet starts manufacturing rail cars in the Northern Cape town, and rail traffic grows with the export of manganese through Ngqura. Transnet is to take 2 500 new wagons into service over the next seven years, and plans to build them in Uitenhage and De Aar, according to CE Brian Molefe. There is also an export market for the wagons, with the Uitenhage works having supplied 200 units to Mozambique earlier this year. The town’s importance as a rail hub is also expected to be resurrected over the next three years, according to Transnet general manager Lloyd Tobias. Existing manganese exports from Hotazel through Port Elizabeth are expected to more than double with the upgrading of the line to handle “heavy hauls” and trains of up to 200 wagons. The line will be able to carry 16 million tons of manganese a year, which will be exported through a new terminal in the port of Ngqura. De Aar will be an important staging and maintenance point for these trains, he said.
