‘The right rail investment is critical’

South Africa’s rail sector needs investment but it has to be the right investment at the right time, according to Dr Jan Havenga, head of the centre for supply chain management at the University of Stellenbosch. Speaking at the Transport Forum in Stellenbosch last week, Havenga said: “We need to invest in core business assets immediately, work on corridor development plans, develop the intermodal business aggressively and invest for the mode and not the balance sheet.” Havenga said it was also important to develop separate business models for high- and low-density railway lines. “High-density lines should be run as effective businesses while the low-density lines could be run as development businesses. All indications are that this is what the strategy should be – and largely, when observed from outside, this is what is happening.”