Mbabane - A new rail route that will shorten the travel time between Johannesburg and Maputo will be constructed on schedule, according to Swaziland Railway officials.
The Swazi rail company is partnering with Transnet Freight Rail on a link due for completion in 2017. The extension by five months of a feasibility study led to media reports that the deadline to start operating the route could not be met.
“Construction has not been affected. Nothing has changed,” said Stephenson Ngubane, the chief executive of Swaziland Railway.
The company said: “The feasibility stage was expected to have been completed by March 2014, but owing to detailed ongoing speciality studies and a prolonged very important stakeholder engagement process, this deadline was moved to August 2014.”
Talks with residents who must be relocated from the rail line’s right of way have proved delicate. The process also involved traditional authorities.
However, the process is well established because of relocations that arose out of the recent expansion of Swaziland’s highway system.
“We need to give enough time to the most critical element of this project [resident relocation] because it affects people,” said Sive Manana, the corporate communications director for Swaziland Railway.
“It is completely untrue that the Swaziland Rail Link Project is on hold. Work is continuing as expected and we believe that the deadline of 2017 for the completion of the project is still achievable,” he said.
When completed, it will connect the current western terminus of Swaziland Railway near the border with South Africa with Transnet Freight Rail’s rail head in Lothair. An existing rail line connects Lothair with Gauteng.
“We want to state with confidence that we expect that in 2015 the project will move on to stage four [execution], and this is when construction will start. Swaziland Railway/Transnet Freight Rail reaffirms these timelines to be the correct ones contrary to what was written [in media stories],” according to Manana.
Although Transnet Freight Rail has earmarked the new line as a way to expedite coal shipments, time and distance will be shortened for all rail freight shippers between Maputo and Johannesburg using a more direct route that will cut across Swaziland.
Currently, rail traffic to Maputo travels to Komatipoort before heading east into Swaziland and then Mozambique.
Transit traffic through Swaziland from South Africa’s shippers was responsible for a significant 25 percent rise in freight volumes for 2013/14 compared with 2012/13.
“We can say general performance has been well above projections for traffic. There has been strong growth in all four traffic categories: imports, exports, container traffic and transit traffic,” Ngubane said.
“We are seeing a much higher demand for imports by rail into Swaziland, and exports also. Containerised [freight] is all imports into Swaziland. Minerals from South Africa make up the bulk of transit traffic cargo.
“Economic growth in South Africa is bigger than Swaziland, and it’s a much bigger economy there. But locally there is increased demand for rail transport services and demand overseas for Swazi and transit products.”
Of the 4 million tons of cargo moved by Swaziland Railway annually, 75 percent is carried as transit traffic. With the completion of the new rail line extending 174km from Lothair, the company anticipates that 90 percent of its revenues will come from transit cargo.
One new cargo item will be petrol.
For the first time, fuel could be transported into Swaziland via rail on the Lothair line, offering an alternative to the dependence on road transport.
“Cargo originating from other countries and moving through Swaziland is our mainstay. Our system is prepared to receive transit shipments so they pass quickly through the country to their destinations,” Ngubane said.
To varying degrees, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe all depend on Swaziland’s rail lines for freight sent out and received by rail. Zimbabwe is a recipient of containerised cargo shipped through Swaziland.
All coal produced in Swaziland is sold to South Africa and shipped via rail. Returning trains transport magnetite from Phalaborwa.
King of Swaziland Mswati III last week encouraged more rail use as a way to reduce truck traffic in the country in the wake of a series of deadly road freight accidents.
The Swazi parliament declared the country’s highways a “national disaster” last month.
Speaking at a state banquet for Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, King Mswati declared: “We need to urgently minimise and closely monitor the frequent movement of trucks.
“We are aware of plans to construct a railway line from Lothair to Swaziland and neighbouring countries.
“However, there is an immediate need to rehabilitate the railway line from Ngwenya to Matsapha, so that the trucks can offload onto trains at Ngwenya, which would transport the cargo to Matsapha and other destinations.”
Built in 1964 as Swaziland Railway’s original rail line to transport iron ore to Maputo, the line was shut down in the 1980s when the Ngwenya mine was depleted.
The rail bed is still in place, and rehabilitation requires only replacement of track.