'Regional alignment will move rail forward'

Intra-trade growth within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is simply not possible if road-to-rail migration does not become a reality in the region. To ensure efficiency, the modal migration strategy has to be regionally aligned. This was the main message from a group of high-level panellists at a press conference held ahead of the Southern African Railway Association’s (Sara) fourth annual conference being held in Johannesburg next week. “We need to work jointly as a region on this, collaborating on policies, standards, maintenance, financing strategies, training and equipment procurement to ensure we give our global and regional customers that level of comfort,” said Cleopatra Shiceka, general manager in the chief executive’s office at Transnet Freight Rail (TFR). She noted that the “bigger picture” of road-torail migration needed to be kept in mind and that the strategies needed to be aligned with other modes of transport to create what she termed a “holistic intermodal” system. “Let’s look at the commodities that need to be transported in the region and decide which goods are best suited to which form of transport. For example, rail is more suitable for the transport of long-haul bulk commodities and trucks for short-haul routes,” she said. Pointing to the myriad challenges facing rail – from outdated equipment to insufficient capacity – Shiceka said: “Sara needs to ensure governments talk to each other and obtain their buy-in on the key strategic objectives to move regional rail forward.” Specific areas requiring assistance from government include investment in infrastructure through creation of rail funds, removal of tariff controls, streamlining and simplification of customs and duty exemption/concessions on imported railway equipment and materials for recapitalisation purposes. “Governments also need to level the playing field between road and rail through the development of equitable land transport policies,” said Shiceka. She said the way forward for Sara would be to develop strong railway learning institutions, secure viable financing mechanisms and manage the migration towards more contemporary technologies. INSERT & CAPTION Sara needs to ensure governments talk to each other. – Cleopatra Shiceka