Rail traffic grows despite downturn – Nair

Transnet Freight Rail (TFR)

has continued to show

consecutive annual growth in

tonnages across its network

despite the current economic

downturn.

According to Ravi Nair,

acting chief executive for TFR,

the organisation has seen a

25% increase from 182 million

tons in 2010/11 to 226.5

million tons in 2014/15.

“The general freight

business has grown by 23%

over the same period,” he

said. “There is an increasing

awareness amongst freight

operators of the role that rail

plays. This is partly due to the

cost advantages of typical railfriendly

commodities as well as

the potential for rail to reduce

the costs of externalities, and

ultimately the cost of doing

business.”

Nair said rail tonnage

and market share growth

targets set in the Market

Demand Strategy (MDS) –

implemented in 2012 – were

being achieved.

But, he said, the challenges

that TFR faced were closely

related to trends in the broader

economy and in specific

customer industries that they

served.

“The greatest challenge we

currently face is the global

economic climate that remains

depressed and that has

negatively impacted export

commodity flows.”

Nair said given that

the timing and the rate of

recovery was uncertain it was

imperative that TFR remained

alert to changes to enable an

agile investment response to

trends.