Abstract:
Arguably the most exciting structural reform in the 162 years that trains have been running in RSA was recently announced by the SA Government with the plan to allow 3rd party private operators to have access to the core rail network in South Africa. This will allow the Private Sector to utilise slots on the vast and underutilised core railway network in SA to move heavy freight from road to rail. The benefits of this are immense with billions of Rands of investment in SA manufactured rolling stock, growing Transnet revenues through track access fees, the reduction of GHG, the movement of freight off our roads and perhaps most importantly increased economic stimulus by improving the competitiveness of the SA economy.