Hybrid trucks running on railways set to revolutionise transport

IN a move that could have a dramatic effect on the country’s long-haul trucking industry, Transnet announced this week it had signed an agreement on a freight service in which privately owned road trucks will run over its rail network.

The project — a joint venture between Transnet Freight Rail and RailRunner SA — will see a test train of truck trailers being hauled on rail bogies on the Cape corridor in the first half of next year.

This means that the containers do not need to be lifted off the truck onto the railway flat cars. Instead, the truck’s trailer is suspended on the rail bogies.

The RailRunner system — a container trailer chassis with conventional wheels for running on road and a dedicated rail bogie for use on rail — will allow truckers to focus on the “last mile” part of the logistics chain where rail cannot operate.

“RailRunner will do for Africa’s logistics what cellphones did for the continent’s communications,” said RailRunner SA CEO Mike Daniel.

As well as helping Transnet in its stated aim to attract more traffic from road to rail, the deal could also clear the way for private sector businesses to get involved in rail transport.

Although the horses and trailers are already privately owned, the deal envisages private operators owning the RailRunner bogies on which the trailers will be hauled.

Transnet will supply the locomotives and operate the trains as part of its general freight service. A typical RailRunner train would consist of 40 truck trailers running on the special bogies.

The technology also removes the need for dedicated freight terminals — all it requires is a flat piece of ground.

“It’s a major jump forward [because] we don’t have road and rail everywhere,” Daniel said.

Hauliers would also need fewer “horses”, Daniel noted.

A truck operator would need two horses — one at each end — but would be earning revenue from six or eight trailers as some would always be in transit.

“And your drivers are at home at night,” he added.

Transnet said a bimodal service would offer its customers “a complete logistics solution” that combined the strengths of both road and rail transport.

South Africa has 21 000km of railways — one of the biggest networks in the world — yet the general freight business is dominated by trucks.

Until the late 1980s, much of the country’s freight was despatched and delivered by rail via a complex network of private rail sidings, or with the state rail operator’s own trucks filling the gaps between rail yard and customer.

But most of those private sidings have long been closed, and rail has lost most of its general freight business to road, a process that began when the truck permit system was scrapped in the 1980s, freeing truckers from the onerous regulations that had kept them in check.

Local industry is also expected to score on the deal as the RailRunner bogies will be manufactured in South Africa, in line with Transnet’s localisation requirements.

“The joint that holds the bogies together and the brakes will be built overseas,” said Daniel.

“The rest will be made here.”

It will do for Africa’s logistics what cellphones did for our communications