Call to move Africa’s freight back on to rail
Regional rivalries and parochial investment in transnational transport infrastructure must be jettisoned and supplanted with the development of common goals.
Failure to tackle these problems head on could stunt the potential of burgeoning intra- African trade envisioned by the African Continental Free Trade Zone ( AfCFTA), the bold initiative aimed at creating a single trading market for an area accommodating 1.3- billion people with the potential to generate $ 3.4- trillion GDP.
This was the message from a Transnet one- day “Focus on Africa” conference held at Kempton Park, Gauteng, in September.
One of the fundamentals of this process is the replacement of road with efficient, reliable rail services meeting customer needs as the primary means of bulk freight haulage through the region — transferring lorry loads to rail will not only ease congestion, improve safety and be more environmentally friendly, but will also be cost- effective, said Transnet CEO Portia Derby.
Portia Derby, CEO of Transnet, addresses delegates at the Transnet ‘ Connecting Africa’ conference held at Kempton Park, Gauteng, in September 2022. Picture: Supplied
The drive to move freight back on to rail was given added impetus in SA by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula calling for measures to make rail, rather than road, the primary mover of freight. His call follows a number of fatal accidents involving lorries on SA’s congested roads and highways.
Derby said, for example, that while about 18percent of goods are transported by rail in Africa, this compares to about 60percent in Europe. This is confirmed by the World Trade Organisation which points out that Africa is also out of kilter with North America at 50percent and Asia at 52percent.
A step change is needed to address this, not only through much- needed infrastructural capital investment, but restructuring to achieve seamless corridors where trains can travel from end to end without the impediments that delay and complicate smooth, quick and efficient source to destination supply chains.
These range from customs and border bureaucracy to varying technical and infrastructural issues including track gauge, maximum train length, braking systems and axle loads — delaying journeys for days or even weeks. The consequence is higher production and delivery costs, not to mention frustration for the customer. The net result is a reluctance to use rail.
Transferring lorryloads to rail will not only ease
congestion [ on the roads], improve safety and be more environmentally friendly, but will also be cost- effective
Much progress has been made through the Integrated Transport Strategy African countries have been working on for several years, but there is still a long way to go. There were a number of examples cited at the conference — which was co- sponsored by the African Development Bank — to show what can be achieved when there is international co- operation to attain the best customer- orientated solution to getting freight from source to destination.
One example cited by Transnet Freight Rail CEO Sizakele Mzimela is a pilot project to have borderless rail between SA and Mozambique with Mozambique Ports and Railways ( CFM) — currently running three continuous trains a day — which required a pooling of resources including locomotives and rolling stock to ensure efficiency and compatibility. It is already showing dividends, though there have been some glitches related to customs issues.
“It is resulting in swifter services and creates the capacity to run more cargoes with less locomotives,” said Derby. The objective is to have a single set of locomotives and wagons all the way through from source to destination as a blockchain solution.
Perhaps more dramatic was the success achieved ( also in the same region) with Eswatini Railways — often described as a bridge railway between SA and Mozambique on the north- south rail corridor between the Democratic Republic of the Congo — but also encompassing Zambia and Zimbabwe and the ports of Durban, Richards Bay and Maputo.
Eswatini Railways CEO Nixon Dlamini pointed out that it is the customer who drives the railways. “We have recognised between Eswatini Railways, Transnet and CFM that key issues can be sorted out by collaboration.”
By obtaining rolling stock from Mozambique locomotives from Transnet to run through Eswatini, he says the three organisations were able to offer a solution to customers whose Maputobound road coal trucks were frequently being delayed at the Komatipoort border.
“We offered a solution bypassing this bottleneck by rail freighting the coal through Eswatini. We started a pilot project of moving 8,000 tonnes in December; in August we signed a service agreement for 18,000 tonnes — removing the equivalent of 557 trucks off the road — and we are now moving close to 70,000 tonnes a month.
“In the process we have also taken care of a carbon footprint issue because from that perspective railways are by far the best mode of transport for bulk freight,” said Dlamini.
Also in collaboration with Transnet, the railways have created a service delivering timber, destined for Japan. “We won a competitive tender against road freight in June last year to, on a trial basis, move 1,600 tonnes of timber to Richards Bay, and we ended up moving 9,000 tonnes and have now signed a five- year transportation contract.”
Rather than concentrating on sourcing capital investment or showcasing Transnet, Derby said the primary objective was to trigger continuous dialogue aimed at setting out an integration plan of action to accelerate intra- African trade and to boost the African trade global standard by ironing out bottlenecks that continue to bedevil efficient running of African continental railways and harbours by focusing on solutions to these.
Raymond Shoniwa, GM of the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway ( BBR) — a private company which began operating as the integral Zimbabwean link