Nomvete calls on rail to jack up its service on Durban - Gauteng route

THERE IS something wrong with the railway structure in South Africa, says Durban's port manager Bax Nomvete.
Addressing the second seminar of the University of Natal's Maritime Initiative on the subject of improved facilities in the Port of Durban, Nomvete said there appeared to be problems with pricing and servicing of rail traffic between Durban and Gauteng.
There is something definitely wrong when 75% of containers being imported or exported travel between Gauteng and the port by road instead of by rail, he told the group of shipping experts. It ought to be the other way round. Sending containers by rail should be cheaper, faster and safer than by road. We should also be reducing the amount of traffic on our overloaded road systems.
Nomvete was responding to a query about upgrading the congested single-lane Bayhead Road. He revealed that plans to widen the road were in the pipeline, and then said the problem was bigger than just one road.
Spoornet are working hard on this problem. A faster, cheaper door to door rail service would solve all the problems.
Nomvete also revealed a package of plans for the port totalling R1,5 billion over the next 7-10 years. These, he said, still awaited Transnet approval, but they included a new quay and two new berths on Pier 2, the relocation of SACD to another site outside the container terminal area, the development of new deepwater quays at the Point and extensions to Pier 1 for container handling. These developments would increase Durban's container capacity to 2 536 million TEUs.
Environmental issues have to be honoured, he said, referring to the mangrove swamp and sandbank areas, but we have to be practical as well.
In the port there have
to be trade-offs.
There is also a school of thought that the deepwater berths project at the Point should not happen, but that we should build these at Maydon Wharf. This issue is under discussion.
BY TERRY HUTSON