'Potential rail users want results'

WHILE THERE has been big fanfare over the launch of Transnet Freight Rail’s new national operations centre – designed, it said, to electronically monitor all corridors and ensure that trains keep moving – you can’t expect a mad rush from road to rail, according to Peter Lewin, director of MSC Logistics. Nobody, he told FTW, is going to make an immediate modal swop just because of a promise from TFR. “It will need to be tried and tested, and proven to have distinct rail management benefits, before anybody is going to make a move,” he said. “People will need to see that the system works first. There’s too much at stake, with businesses in a tight state, and it’s too early to do a road-rail switch.” Lewin also suggested that TFR should look at it as a longer-term project. “It’s fantastic that Transnet has put such an idea into practice,” he said, “but they can’t just expect people to join up overnight. “In the past, they have implemented things with potential, but – because things didn’t start to work right away – they dropped the idea.” Lewin also feels that there’s an inherent reticence in industry to move to rail. “It’s very difficult to regain business that you’ve lost because of poor service levels,” he said, “and Transnet will need to prove that this system does work and benefits the freight industry before they can expect people to overcome this already adverse perception.”