Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has completed repairs to its Northern Corridor after cable thieves shut down the rail network on Tuesday night.
TFR announced late on Wednesday that the parastatal had concluded the repair work “in a record time of 15 hours” after its team pushed hard to get the job done swiftly.
An earlier media statement estimated that it would take 18 hours to repair the damage.
“The incident had taken place on the Mswaneni bypass between Vryheid and Ulundi. At the time of the media statement, TFR had already at 5h18 concluded repair work on its line at Mkhondo, which had also suffered a cable theft incident the previous night,” TFR said.
“At Mswaneni, the theft was extensive and included five spans of catenary wire stolen, five spans of contact wire vandalised, and five spans of steel work damaged. TFR had to close the line to clear the load on the track and to repair the line.”
The rail utility said it had recorded a “huge spike” in cable theft incidents over the past few years that had escalated revenue losses and repair costs.
Approximately 1 500 km of cable was stolen during the financial year ending March, costing the parastatal R4.1bn in operational disruptions, security costs, remediation, and lost opportunity of foreign direct earnings.
“Together with its partners, including law enforcement agencies, TFR is working hard to find solutions to mitigate the scourge,” it said.
The public has been urged to help by reporting any suspected cable theft incidents to cabletheft@transnet.net.
