Swazi Rail to switch from lease to purchase

MBABANE – Swaziland Railway plans to purchase its first engines to be entirely company owned in the 41 years the rail service has been in business. In the past, the system’s steam and then diesel engines have all been leased from South Africa. “Spoornet has always had spare capacity, and we’ve used that to obtain our engines. Now Spoornet’s capacity is less, and it is becoming more costly to lease. This comes at a time when we are seriously exploring purchasing our system’s first engines,” said Stephen Ngubane, marketing director for Swaziland Railway. The railway is close to closing a deal for engines whose costs, depending on the horsepower chosen, will range upward to $4 million. “We have been operating with 3000 horsepower engines, which is near the top of the line,” said Ngubane. The system uses two locomotives per train in mountainous areas. Breaking loads into smaller trains so they might be powered by single engines has proven impractical. Straight, low-lying tracks, such as those found in the coal and sugar belts whose products are shipped in bulk on the railway, can be managed by single engines.