Spoornet’s indifferent performance supports ongoing migration to road

RAY SMUTS
OUTGOING Maersk South Africa MD, Flemming Dalgaard, says the indifferent performance by Transnet subsidiary, Spoornet, remains real cause for concern. “They still have to do something radical because we have seen very few improvements. “It still takes at least two days by rail from Durban to Johannesburg whereas a truck achieves 12 hours door-to-door, representing a continuous migration of cargo away from rail, which is a concern as roads are already clogged up enough. “I believe we could have more emphasis on transporting containers by rail as it makes no sense to truck from the Durban container terminal to Johannesburg when you have, in theory, a perfectly working rail link.” To Dalgaard’s way of thinking, rail works for the bulk industry and for iron ore but it is not working for containers, besides which it is too expensive, road being 15-20% cheaper. “We have tried a number of ways with Spoornet but it just is not working. Last month Maersk was looking to buy an additional 200 trucks to transport everything by road, but that is not the way forward,” says Dalgaard.