The Road Freight Association (RFA) believes it will take a miracle for most road freight to be moved to rail throughout the subsequent five years.
It was reacting to feedback made by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula that the Department of Transport is working with the Department of Public Enterprises to get vans off the road, by shifting most freight onto rail throughout the subsequent five years.
Mbalula’s feedback observe a horrific fatal accident near Pongola in KwaZulu-Natal final week. The collision between a truck and a bakkie claimed no less than 20 lives, together with 18 main faculty youngsters.
RFA CEO Gavin Kelly stated there may be nothing new in Mbalula’s feedback concerning the motion of freight from road to rail apart from the five-year goal – and the motion of road freight to rail has been a part of the Department of Transport’s insurance policies and methods for years.
“These discussions have been on the table, but the reality is nothing has come of those discussions and in the last five years we have seen whatever infrastructure we actually had destroyed,” stated Kelly.
“How he [Mbalula] is going to get anything right in five years – bar a miracle – is beyond me.”
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Kelly stated Mbalula’s feedback have been “driven by an accident” and never by “the last three decades of discussion and the collapse of logistics” in South Africa.
Funding?
He questioned who will fund the motion of “most” road freight to rail.
“I don’t assume it’s achievable. They usually are not even shifting key units of cargo like coal, ore or containers by rail so I don’t see it occurring in any respect.
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“The reality is this – and it isn’t just freight but in terms of moving people – that rail has failed us or we have failed rail,” stated Kelly.
“We haven’t taken care of it for no matter motive and the place it now wants to play its function, it can not as a result of there may be simply a lot decay.
“This is just not going to be revitalising the rail community, it’s going to be a whole rebuild in many circumstances.
“There are some lines that were built in the 1950s and 1960s that have not been looked after and upgraded. It’s a mammoth task.”
Kelly stated effectivity, reliability, safety and accessibility usually are not traits or phrases generally related to rail providers in South Africa. However, rail has to play its half in the motion of each passengers and freight.
He referred to the traces of vans travelling to the assorted ports as a result of the rail system is both unserviceable or there are issues on the ports, stressing that this can not proceed.
Call for particulars
“We call on the minister to propose and show us this rail plan, because it’s going to be a joint effort of all the modes involved – not just rail,” stated Kelly.
“And the client will determine which mode to use and rail has to change into environment friendly, dependable, safe and accessible in any other case we’re going to throw good cash after dangerous.
“That actually raises the query as to who’s going to restore or repair the rail system?
“Is it going to be the taxpayer or is it going to be the road freight trade that will now be taxed and have additional levies to pay and incentivise freight shifting from road to rail?
“This is a very important concept that needs to be discussed very carefully before we destroy what is left of the supply of logistics and transport chains that we have in this country,” he stated.
‘Rail renaissance’
Mbalula highlighted throughout an deal with to the National Council of Provinces earlier this month the pressing nationwide significance of restoring and modernising the nation’s rail infrastructure.
He stated the White Paper on National Rail Policy authorized by cupboard in March 2022, and tabled in parliament, seeks to allow the federal government to implement the bold coverage selections it has made, together with radical structural reforms that not solely search to result in competitiveness of the railway system but in addition allow non-public sector participation via concessions.
“These selections will allow us to deliver concerning the rail renaissance.
“The Rail Policy is geared to dramatically transform rail infrastructure planning and intends to give further impetus in positioning rail as the backbone of both freight transportation and urban commuter mobility,” he stated.
However, Mbalula admitted South Africa finds itself in a state of affairs the place the present funding sources obtainable are proving insufficient to permit Transnet Freight Rail to meet the extent of service and infrastructure funding required to deal with rail-friendly freight and provides impetus to shifting 10% of cargo from road to rail.
Mbalula stated the concessioning of department traces and the entry of department line operators to the principle line will type a essential a part of the Rail Private Sector Participation Framework to be developed by his division this monetary yr.
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“This framework will cowl totally different types of participation, a clear procurement framework and the function of rail financial regulation.
“The revitalisation of the branch line network will provide focus on specific business opportunities and promote the shift of freight from road to rail,” he stated.
Reaction
Automobile Association (AA) spokesperson Layton Beard stated there are a lot of potential advantages to shifting freight from road to rail, together with decreasing the stress on the road community and probably decreasing prices to the buyer.
“Everybody agrees there needs to be a greater reliance on the rail network, but to what extent is the rail network capable of delivering that service?” Beard asks.
He stated the explanation this challenge is again on the agenda is due to the deadly Pongola accident however that the dialogue ought to deal with road security.
Beard famous that South Africa is ranked poorly globally in phrases of road security, saying there are a variety of causes for this, together with driver behaviour, which is influenced by the shortage of site visitors regulation enforcement.