Rail monopoly ending

APPROVED: TRANSNET PUBLISHES PRIVATE SECTOR RAIL STATEMENT

- Ciaran Ryan

Transnet's freight rail monopoly is about to end following the publication of a rail network statement that allows private operators access to South Africa's nearly 21 000km rail network.

Reform of the country's rail network has been years in gestation but was accelerated in 2023 when the Cabinet approved the Freight Logistics Roadmap, which established the broad outlines of a programme to invite much-needed private participation in the rail sector.

"This is an exciting and significant milestone in the journey towards meaningful rail sector reform in South Africa," said Business for South Africa (B4SA) in response to the network statement published last week by the Transnet Infrastructure Rail Manager (Trim).

Traxtion, which operates one of Africa's largest private rail fleets, says this will invite private investment into the rail sector and unlock the bottleneck on job creation and economic growth.