Spoornet cancels export trains

ONE OF the repercussions of the national port strike saw Spoornet cancelling export trains from City Deep terminal over two days to allow the backlog at Durban harbour to clear enough to receive the new export containers.
And, although the schedule was due to start operating again on the second night, Spoornet hesitated before declaring all clear. "We will view this situation on a day-to-day basis," said the railways' memo.
Container operators told FTW that the shut-down had not hurt their traffic flow unduly and they expected their export container consignments to meet their loading times. However, one expressed the hope that these glitches in the export system would not continue as schedules at this time of the year were extremely tight because of the expected seasonal shut-down at the ports' container terminals.