The Road Freight Association supports Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula’s plan to move cargo from the country’s busy roads and on to rail in the next five years, but has warned that there are many challenges that must be confronted to achieve this goal.
Mbalula announced the plan following a spate of horrific road crashes involving freight vehicles in recent weeks.
RFA CEO Gavin Kelly said the organisation supported the shift, however all aspects of the logistics chain, including ports, airports, road and rail, needed to operate at their optimum level. He said the industry had made “countless calls” for the revitalisation of the rail network.
“Any reasonable assessment of logistics chains around the world shows that rail needs to play its part in the movement of certain sizes (gross tonnage) and types of cargo. Moving millions of tonnes of coal or ore to a harbour by truck is not sensible, and South Africa led the way in logistics operations when the dedicated lines carrying coal from the inland mines to Richards Bay, or similarly iron ore to Saldanha, were textbook and sustainable examples of main-line rail operations,” he said.
“There were, of course, many more regional rail links that supported agriculture, manufacturing, and general retail business.”
He said the greatest tragedy was that passenger rail had collapsed as a system that had lines running within most metropolitan areas.
“Buses of all types and sizes must now ply routes to ensure that employees can get to work on time. Efficiency, reliability and security are not traits commonly associated with rail services, whether passenger or freight,” said Kelly.
He said it would take time to get freight rail services back online as a reliable and sustainable alternative.
“The rail infrastructure has been neglected and destroyed, with parts looking like scenes from apocalypse movies or what is seen once a war has rolled across a country and peace has finally come. There are myriad challenges that face rail and the plan to address and prevent these recurring is a vital part of any ‘revitalisation’ of rail,” Kelly said.
“Realities in the freight logistics world determine how freight is moved, which modes are chosen above others and what investment, if any, will be applied to a mode. Transportation has always been a dynamic industry, and while those who run businesses in the transportation industry continually compete and try to have an edge or provide the best service, it is the customer – owner of the goods – who ultimately decides which mode is used.”
He said rail would firstly need to provide the accessible, efficient, reliable and secure service that is currently provided by other modes, mostly by road transport.
“Once rail can provide that kind of service, then the customer will use rail. What is the plan to provide that level of service? Where will the funding come from to rebuild/repair and run such a service? Is the plan to tax South Africans even more, or to levy and penalise the efficient road freight industry? Which routes will be chosen, as you cannot fix everything at the same time?”
He said the RFA had held many discussions with the department over the past three decades but nothing had come to fruition due to the unreliability of the rail system.
“There are certain routes that need to be rebuilt and then run, to prove that rail can be relied upon to play its role as required. The reason for so many coal trucks running through uPhongola is due to the rail system at Richards Bay having collapsed. Evidently the loading process at the port cannot take any coal from rail at the moment. If so, this needs to be repaired.”
