TRANSNET FREIGHT RAIL (TFR) was running 1,200 trains a day at the end of 2011, which is a huge increase of 500 from January. CEO of Transnet, Brian Molefe quoted these impressive numbers at the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber in Port Elizabeth early in August.
Rail freight is on the way back in a big way. Eskom power stations, liquids now being carried by the multi-product pipeline, and a large amount of container traffic were all previously transported on the road by trucks.
Transnet’s market demand strategy will lower the cost of doing business in South Africa by an equivalent of 0.5% of the gross domestic product, Molefe claims. In all, he says, the total supply cost of rail is 23% less than that of road.
