The jury is still out on whether the Swaziland Rail Link – a joint venture between Swaziland Railway and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) – is a commercially viable project, according to a Transnet official.
Speaking at the Fossil Fuel Foundation’s ‘Infrastructure and Logistics for the Coal Industry’ workshop held in Johannesburg this week, Transnet commercial unit general manager, Divyesh Kalan, commented that various feasibility studies were still being conducted around this project.
He did not commit to a date for completion of the studies.
The signing of the memorandum of understanding by TFR and Swaziland Railway (SR) on 22 November 2012, cemented the relationship at business and technical levels.
The key objectives of the project are to provide viable connections for rail freight from Western Swaziland to markets in South Africa and provide Transnet with an alternative route for moving general freight to Richards Bay, via Swaziland, thus freeing capacity on the coal line.
This would see the development of a 146-kilometre railway line between Lothair in Mpumalanga and Sidvokodvo in Swaziland as well as upgrading adjacent networks in both countries.
