A significant challenge the rail sector currently faces is reinstating its services following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) CEO Tshepo Kgare.

During the pandemic, railway infrastructure was significantly damaged by vandalism and theft.

In addition to working towards reinstating services, the railway sector, in particular State-owned railway companies must also contend with protecting and securing current infrastructure to ensure it is not damaged further, she points out.

However, this continues to pose a challenge owing to the cost associated with security measures as well as ongoing vandalism and theft.

Kgare reiterates the importance of providing a rail network that is protected, ensures operational efficiency, and remains an attractive mode of transport.

She adds that an emerging trend in the National Rail State of Safety Report for 2022 shows a change in risk associated with railway safety, particularly owing to theft and vandalism, which has resulted in an increase in security related risks.

Further, this impacts the attractiveness of the railways sector as cable theft often results in a decrease in activity. Therefore, there is a decrease in the services that the railway sector can provide. This goes on to impact the number of commuters and cargo the railway service can transport.

The State of Safety Report was released at the yearly Rail Safety Conference in Cape Town on October 10, hosted by the RSR. The report provides an analysis of operational occurrences and security related incidents as well as harm to persons.

Based on information currently available, RSR found that following lockdown, many operators suffered from exposure to rampant vandalism and theft.

“There's a lot of work that the regulator and operators in collaboration need to do to find solutions to the challenges that we have experienced.”

While many operators are trying to put in place measures to protect their assets to reduce the impact of vandalism, some of these measures may not be financially sustainable unless there is cooperation with the South African Police Service or Rapid Rail.

Apart from impacting the immediate services the railway sector can provide, theft and vandalism also results in increased cost owing to replacement and the ongoing maintenance that is required. This impacts the long term sustainability of the sector, which is already operating way below capacity. For instance, State-owned railway company Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is currently operating less than 40% of its services.

This also impacts the sector’s ability to introduce and integrate new technologies, as the sector has to restore what was lost throughout the pandemic instead on focusing on the modernisation efforts that had been underway pre-pandemic.

While a year-on-year comparison regarding security related incidents, a slight reduction of about 6% from 2021 to 2022 is evident, the long-term trend from 2013 to date shows an increase of about 62% in security related incidents.

While there has been a shift in the location of operations related occurrences, this is likely owing to reduced levels of service in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.

Whereas these three provinces historically showed higher numbers of railway operational occurrences by provinces, the collapse of the service, particularly the passenger rail service, has resulted in a comparative increase of railway operational occurrences in Mpumalanga and Northern Cape.

RSR expects these occurrences to change as it continues to open more corridors and the PRASA network normalising once it has been restored.

Overall, Kgare says the network has seen very marginal improvement over the years despite the decrease in the extent of services provided.

Ongoing Projects
A flagship project for the RSR currently is to develop a Safety Risk Model (SRM), which RSR expects will allow the organisation to draw risk profiles for various operators. As the risk landscape changes, the model will become important tool for RSR to use to predict risk.

“It's an ambitious project on the part of the Regulator. Most countries with mature and were industry is highly organsed, operators have come together to develop the SRM and use it to identify and predict risk so that they are able to intervene appropriately,” says Kgare.

Another key project the RSR is working on is a review of its Safety Management System Determination, which operators require when applying for permits. The RSR’s target is to have it completed by the end of the current financial year, says Kgare.

The safety management system guides RSR’s process of assessing whether or not an operator is able to provide assurances that they can manage safety in terms of their operations. As part of the review, RSR formed a working group made up of various industry stakeholders to discuss amendments that should go into the safety management system.

Webinar
RSR is also partnering with Creamer Media to host a webinar this month that will focus on overcoming transport challenges related to South Africa's transport and logistics sector.

A RSR operations team senior executive will be speaking to industry experts on how to overcome security challenges facing the transport sector, such as the cable theft, as well as how criminality negatively impacts the railway system.

“The webinar will also unpack how to overcome the deterioration of the road and rail infrastructure which impacts our ability to facilitate efficient movement of goods within South Africa and exports among other challenges that arise from the deterioration of the infrastructure,” concludes Kgare.