Progress on the construction of the Balfour railway line will be inspected by President Jacob Zuma on Friday, 20 September before he officially re-opens the Grootvlei Power Station in Balfour.

The Balfour railway line is intended to ferry coal to the Grootvlei Power Station in line with migrating from road to rail in the transportation of coal.

In line with commitments to migrate freight volumes to rail, Transnet has re-instated the Grootvlei – Balfour rail line which is approximately 30 kilometres in length. This rail line will be capable of initially transporting three million tons of coal per annum to the Grootvlei power station.

Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba on the rail line construction says, “We expect the first phase of the project to be completed by December this year and the second phase by April 2014. Already the development on the rail line sees 9 kilometres of track successfully installed.”

The Grootvlei-Balfour railway line forms part of the broader branchline network. In South Africa, branchlines total 7 000 kilometres in rail network whilst the core rail network is 12 800 kilometres in length.

Branchlines form a critical link in the overall transportation system and are an integral component of the revitalisation of the freight traffic road to rail migration strategy.