The
North-South corridor is a containerised freight corridor, managed through
cooperation between railway operators and administrators in South Africa,
Zimbabwe and Zambia. These include Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), Grindrod Rail
and Zambian Railways, with a joint-operating centre (JOC) based in Bulawayo.
The
corridor is served by more than 80 locomotives and several thousand railway
wagons capable of accommodating a variety of cargo types, including bulk,
break-bulk or bagged dry freight, liquids and fuels, containers and high-value
mineral products.
The
continuing regional economic growth and pipeline of mining and related
investments in the ‘copper belt’, combined with the regional governments’
policies to shift freight from road back to rail, has encouraged the operating
partners to undertake significant investments in both rolling stock and
infrastructure.
Grindrod’s
Zimbabwean subsidiary, Beitbridge Bulawayo Railways (BBR), was formed in 1997
in partnership with National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) to manage the railway
concession between Beitbridge and Bulawayo. The concession completes a missing
link between the South African border at Musina and Bulawayo on the North-South
corridor and saves significant travel distance compared to the original route via
Botswana. The concession runs until 2029.
Grindrod
Rail has invested in six new locomotives on the Zimbabwe line in the last two
years, with the track rehabilitation programme contributing to the reliability
of the service. Together, Transnet Freight Rail and Grindrod secured the first
container trains from Zambia to Durban in 2015 and have run 13 trains to date.
A record delivery took just six days from Kitwe, Zambia, to Durban, with a
northbound and round-trip container service from Zambia to Durban now possible.
According
to Grindrod, rail freight customers using the corridor have four basic
requirements: price, reliability, predictability and security.
Visibility
One
problem faced by South African rail operator TFR relates to visibility of
trains and cargo. “We run trains in South Africa to our borders, but our
customers don’t know what is happening beyond that,” says Nyameka Madikizela,
executive manager: International Business at TFR. “We try to see how we can
improve that so our customers have the same visibility that they enjoy in South
Africa.”
While
TFR is looking to sign agreements with various operators, its customers want to
get one service: “The team on the North-South corridor has been interesting in
terms of the dynamics. The go-getters want to see change. The growth that we
have experienced on the corridor is phenomenal. The Bulawayo facility is
running, but there are a few things that we need to get right,” she concedes.
The
current framework looks at how TFR can make the necessary investments to
achieve the growth in the volumes that it anticipates. “The SADC region
focused, for whatever reason, on road transport and then realised that they
needed to relook at the strategy for road transport, after a lot of taxpayer’s
money was spent,” she says.
TFR
moves less than 5% of the total 24 million tonnes of annual cargo in the region
on rail, but has plans to change that. “We have a dynamic road to rail strategy
that is being developed. TFR has looked at how it can operate with partners so
that the planning and execution are done together through the JOC. We look at
other strategic projects, like the Masterplan and the capital investment plan,
because rail revival requires that everyone works together.”
Private
sector funding is required as the running of trains cross-border requires
modern technology such as track-warrant systems and on-board computers.
The
sky’s the limit
In
aviation, there are standard operating procedures and an operating philosophy
that everyone understands, no matter the country. TFR and its partners are
trying to achieve a similar operating philosophy and standardisation on the
corridor, in a region where French, Portuguese and English are all native.
Simply
running trains, however, is not enough, with rolling stock depreciating quickly
in the absence of network maintenance. “In Africa, we have a bad philosophy
where we take colonised infrastructure, do nothing about it and then hope that
it’s going to be okay for the next 100 years. We need to have a maintenance
philosophy that talks to how we can sustain the infrastructure we have. We are
fortunate in that, when we got freedom (South Africa and Zimbabwe), we had the
infrastructure; all we needed to do was to take it from there. Africa is the
next attraction in terms of investments, but we need to organise ourselves
better,” Madikizela laments.
Timing
is everything
Critical
to the success of the corridor is the amount of time taken to deliver cargo
from origin to port. “We had to agree with our partners on how long it would
take to move a train from Zambia to Durban. We started with 28 days, but we’ve
done it in 6. We are targeting between 8 and 10 days. As a result of that
performance, we’ve received a lot of enquiries from shipping lines interested
in moving cargo. Rail transport isn’t plagued by the same customs issues road
transport is, because stakeholders work together to plan and execute the
service together.”
TFR’s
Masterplan began in 2014 and, with the help of Nepad, much has been achieved.
The plan is about moving and scoping the service from South Africa, largely to
the port of Durban, Richard’s Bay and up to Zambia, including Zimbabwe, and all
the way to Kolwezi in the DRC.
TFR
has identified areas and lines that are important. Some of the lines need to be
studied to understand how they work, particularly in terms of the copper belt.
Other branch lines have also been looked at. “We’ve scoped it as dry bulk,
break bulk and liquid bulk. We’ve looked at several parts of it, as it’s not
just about rail – it’s about the supply chain. The supply chain is pit to port
and includes partnerships with road hauliers. We collaborate with road hauliers
because the intermodal strategy is key, especially in the region, as we don’t
have rail sidings. There aren’t as many lines as in South Africa either, so TFR
has to consolidate for the trains to turn around quickly.”
While
TFR has invested in rolling stock, locomotives and wagons, many redundant
wagons and locomotives are being deployed into the region. The key things are
consolidation and channelling trains on a regular basis.
Track
inspection has been done, although work still has to be done on the BBR line
from Beitbridge to Vic Falls. In some parts of South Africa, trains can reach
80 km/h, but, in others areas, can fall to 40 km/h. “We are trying to achieve
40 km/h in the entire region so that we can reduce turnaround time. There is a
need to replace some sleepers as some of the partners have expressed
environmental concerns,” she says.
Taking
stock
“When
running trains in the region, you have to return to the basics; you have to run
trains on a spreadsheet and make sure someone knows when they will arrive and
that they return.”
“Phase
Two is about restoration, where the partners look at signalling and at tracking
wagons before doing what is done overseas. The third phase requires more money,
as TFR intends to grow its rail freight volumes sustainably.
While
polling stock is to be refurbished and new stock bought, the key thing for the
business to grow is to make the cash flow work. “Freight demand analysis is
being undertaken; we know there are 24 million tonnes out there,” she
concludes.
Article first appeared in Transport World Africa:
