Rail simply can't cope,says parliamentary report

Alan Peat DESPITE THE government (and its transport parastatals) supporting a move of cargo from road to rail, there's a very strong hint from practical experience that rail just can't compete. This was revealed in an early-June report from the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport on its factÐfinding mission to Durban, City Deep and Pretcon container terminals Ð which it conducted as part of its survey of the National Commercial Ports Policy. At all these facilities, the word was out from both private and public sector voices that rail just can't cope. The SA Port Operations (Sapo) in Durban told the committee that it supported the view of moving cargo from road to rail. The reasoning behind this, the committee's report added, "because they strongly maintain that it is easier to load 100 containers onto a single train than onto one hundred individual road vehicles." However, the main concern at Sapo is the extent to which rail is ready to handle the shift. "At the present moment there are challenges that need to be addressed in order to see the desired shift of containerised freight from road to rail," said the parliamentary body.