The Future of Rail in the Eastern Cape 

Rail should provide vital transport support to the agricultural sector in the province, yet many agricultural branch lines have been closed and some even uplifted. Rail is essential for export ore and grain traffic, for the movement of motor vehicles, liquid fuel traffic, containers and cement traffic. Serving two important ports, and a soon to be opened third, Eastern Cape rail lines will become even more essential for import and export traffic. The public are generally not aware of this fact, since they share the highways with heavy road transport vehicles and this creates an impression that most freight traffic is on road. In contrast, railway operations take place largely out of sight of the motorist.

The railways share of general freight traffic has diminished in recent years but present government investment initiatives are geared to grow both bulk and general freight traffic. From an environmental viewpoint, as highway congestion increases and pollution from diesel road vehicles becomes a major issue, rail transport will provide a better transport alternative.   Increased rail usage has been the trend in most developed countries and should follow in South Africa, but will require greater joint planning between the railway operator, provincial and national government.

The recently announced R 80 billion recapitalisation programme is the first major state intervention to address declining rail cargoes. The intervention of the Eastern Cape government to re-open the Mthatha branch line as part of the Kei Rail initiative is an encouraging development and should be supported.