Business Day
*Transnet, Swaziland to invest R17bn in railway line* *Nicky Smith, Business Day, Johannesburg, 13 January 2012*SA AND Swaziland will invest R17bn building a "Swazilink" railway line which would increase rail capacity for general freight and coal exports, and will also be the largest rail project undertaken in Southern Africa since 1976.
Under the investment programme, a new R7,3bn single line covering 146km would be built by Transnet and concurrent investments worth R8,6bn would be made to upgrade and strengthen about 600km of adjacent railways, Transnet said yesterday.
The new line will join Lothair in Mpumalanga with Sidvokodvo in Swaziland and free up capacity on Transnet's network, allowing it to move additional coal to Richards Bay Coal Terminal.
In the past few years SA's coal exports have been constrained by a lack of rail capacity between the coal-producing regions and the terminal in Richards Bay, which has a design capacity of 91-million tons a year. Transnet has delivered a patchy service with tonnages fluctuating between 62-million tons and 68-million tons in the past seven years.
Transnet Freight Rail's chief operating officer, Mlamuli Buthelezi, said that in its first phase, the line would accommodate eight trains a day and would have a capacity of 15-million tons a year. A second phase would increase capacity to 35-million tons a year.
The investment was expected to unlock the logjam being experienced in Ermelo, said Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba , who was also at the announcement ceremony in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The announcement was further evidence of SA's ambitions to hasten infrastructure development. It comes in the same week as Transnet's acquisition of 43 General Electric (GE) locomotives in addition to its existing programme to buy 100 GE engines.
The Swazilink was part of Transnet's broader rail investment plans and was needed to support other new rail links between the coalfields in the Waterberg with ports on the east coast, Mr Gigaba said.
The anticipated Waterberg rail investment "will not succeed" unless congestion in Ermelo is addressed, he said.
Mr Buthelezi said announcements on the Waterberg rail link were expected soon, but declined to comment further on the scope of the project.
Transnet Group CEO Brian Molefe said he expected the first train to run within three years after the conclusion of land purchase agreements and environmental approvals.
According to an indicative project schedule, phase one runs from 2011 to 2016. This year will be used to plan and finalise costing and feasibility. Construction is scheduled to run between 2013 and 2016.
"When this line is commissioned in three years' time we will have a significant increase of capacity on our coal line," Mr Molefe said. Investments in new lines and the upgrade of the existing network will take capacity beyond 91-million tons and "close to 100-million tons", he said.
Swaziland Railway CEO Gideon Mahlalela said his country had wanted to create a western link with SA since 1882. Swaziland will be responsible for about R5bn of the investment required for the Swazilink line.
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