Prasa in desperate battle to keep Shosholoza on track
THE Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) is in a desperate fight to save loss-making Shosholoza Meyl, the long-distance rail service, which last received funding for its business from the Treasury three years ago.
Prasa CEO Lucky Montana has labelled the Treasury’s failure to fund it as “irrational” and called into question the decision to cut funding to the service as it was contrary to SA’s transport policy of moving freight and passengers off the roads and onto rail.
In Prasa’s latest annual report, Mr Montana said the Treasury’s behaviour had “no basis in law and transport policy” and called for an urgent review of its decision.
SA’s rail infrastructure has suffered from decades of underfunding.
Prasa’s recent capital investment has focused on Metrorail, its commuter train service, which will receive R123bn over the next 20 years to replace old rolling stock.
The investment in Metrorail goes beyond new coaches, and includes billions of rand being invested in signalling infrastructure.
The Shosholoza Meyl business, which has shown a decline in performance for years and runs at a loss, has not been as fortunate as Metrorail in support from the Treasury.
Passenger trips on Shosholoza Meyl fell 11.2% in 2011-12. This is against a 2.3% increase in the number of Metrorail passengers. Just 38% of long-distance trains arrive at their destination on time. In a bid to save Shosholoza Meyl, Prasa has commissioned a turnaround strategy from Lufthansa Consulting, which will soon be presented to Prasa management, Mr Montana said this week.
The Treasury last subsidised the service in 2010. And even then, Mr Montana said, its allocation only met about a third of requirements.
Prasa has had to rationalise and has been unable to replace old infrastructure. The lack of Treasury funding had led to “a further deterioration in the asset and is contributing to more passengers shifting from rail to road transport”, says the report. With its low patronage, Prasa has admitted the service is not sustainable.
Mr Montana struck a more conciliatory note this week when he said the turnaround strategy was a means to save Shosholoza Meyl, with the Treasury’s support.
But he said the Shosholoza Meyl would be a rationalised service, with fewer trains and routes.
The Lufthansa report will deter- mine optimal routes, as well as develop a plan to use new locomotives. It will also revise the speed of long-distance coaches to make them more competitive with road transport.
The new locomotives are set to halve travelling times between longhaul destinations. They are capable of travelling at about 140km/h.
The plan will also depend on agreements with Transnet, the owner of the inter-city rail network. Mr Montana said passenger services needed to be a priority. In some instances, he said, Prasa’s trains were held up by the breakdown of freight trains.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa’s state of economic infrastructure report for 2012 said the main contributor to operational disruptions was Prasa’s use of Transnet tracks and its reliance on it for haulage and rolling stock maintenance facilities.
The report estimated rail transport was responsible for less than 1% of all inter-city journeys in SA. A 2007 due diligence report on Shosholoza Meyl estimated it required R1.2bn a year to run.