TFR to shut down coal line for maintenance

Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) will embark on a 12-day shutdown of the coal export line which will run from the May 14-25. This annual activity which occurs in the month of May presents an opportunity for the company to “catch up” on maintenance backlog, replace old, obsolete and problematic infrastructure as part of sustainability of the business, and accelerate the major capital expansion/upgrade projects in line with the expected volume growth, also as a requirement for the company’s Market Demand Strategy (MDS), a spokesman said. The shutdown programme is also necessitated by the fact that on the coal line there are sections where infrastructure work cannot be carried out without stopping the entire train service. For example, at Overvaal (single line portion of the line) where critical maintenance and refurbishment work needs to be done as well as work to be performed in the Ermelo yard. The shutdown will also serve as a boost to the infrastructure construction programme for the expansion to 81Mt pa which has recently commenced, said TFR. In the 2012/13 financial year TFR railed 69.2 million tons of export coal on the line, a record in the history of the line.