The road versus rail debate continues ...

I wish to comment on the recent article in FTW headlined “Gauteng – Durban corridor conundrum”. (Gauteng feature September 2012). With the greatest respect to Andrew Marsay, the RailRoad Association of SA questions some of his claims. Mr Marsay states that “except for high bulk situations rail is more expensive than road transport when you add up all the costs.” The RailRoad Association of SA has examined these issues for over ten years and we believe that the opposite is true. Our association has tried to explore all the facts, claims and counter claims and our findings do not support Mr Marsay’s claims. Mr Marsay states: “There is a naïve tendency to think that because trains run on steel instead of rubber on tar and that the friction is very little that it must be cheaper.” It is correct that this is generally correct, but it is necessary to compare distances, and with the exception of private sidings, rail often requires road to provide door-to-door services. However, modern intermodal systems can exploit the best potential of rail and road in a costeffective partnership that is in South Africa’s interests. We at RRA have been promoting this concept for years and will continue to do so. Mr Marsay claims that for container traffic on the Durban-Gauteng route rail can only compete with road transport because it is cross-subsidised because of port tariffs. What he doesn’t say is that road transport is heavily subsidised by the non-commercial motorist. When consideration is given to the importance of “external traffic costs” which include infrastructure provision, maintenance and degradation costs, accident, congestion and policing costs, energy usage and sustainability including global warming matters, true road freight costs are much greater than rail. This has been proven by many research studies worldwide. In the case of a “segregated freight road ”, if the cost of such a highway were to be fully covered by road transport operators it would be prohibitive and tolls would have to be raised which would quickly put them out of business. We have an excellent rail infrastructure in South Africa, developed and upgraded over 150 years and we must use this to our best advantage. This will be in our long-term interests, both financially and in terms of social sustainability. From the energy usage point of view, road transport operators need diesel fuel while the railways are largely electrified, and even if this energy is derived from polluting thermal power stations, we produce it within South Africa and do not rely on problematical international supplies. In terms of total long-term costs, we must revitalise out railways and create a positive working-face with modern road transport systems. Allen Jorgensen, RailRoadAssociation of SA.