Name and Location
PRASA New Rolling Stock Procurement Programme – Gibela rolling stock project, South Africa.

Client
Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA).

Project Description
The programme involves the acquisition of about 7 200 new rail vehicles by 2034.

The supply programme will be rolled out in two phases, with the first involving the supply of 600 trains, comprising 3 600 coaches over a ten-year period.

The rail agency signed a R51-billion deal with Gibela Rail Transport Consortium, comprising Alstom (61%), Ubumbano Rail (30%) and New Africa Rail (9%), in October 2013 to supply the first 600 trains from 2015 to 2025.

Ubumbano Rail comprises several companies that are keen to enter the rail sector space as suppliers. The three commercial entities in Ubumbano Rail are Khipunyawo Rail, the Elgin-Identity Rail Corporation and Community Rail.

The consortium will provide PRASA with Alstom’s X’Trapolis Mega train, with each train comprising six cars capable of transporting more than 1 300 passengers. The trains will travel at speeds of up to 120 km/h and could be upgraded to travel 160 km/h.

The first 20 trains and 120 coaches are being manufactured at Alstom’s Lapa facility in São Paulo, Brazil, while a R1-billion 600 000 m² local manufacturing facility will be built in Dunnottar, Ekurhuleni, to manufacture the balance of the trains.

Gibela will also provide maintenance, spare parts and technical support for PRASA over a 19-year period in terms of a deal worth about R10-billion. Alstom will establish five maintenance depots – two in Gauteng, two in KwaZulu-Natal and one in the Eastern Cape – that will provide fault-finding support, reliability engineers, controls and monitoring, and material requirement planning. Gibela will also establish two repair centres in Salt River and Durban.

In support of the new rolling stock procurement programme, PRASA has embarked on a major modernisation programme, which will include depot and station modernisation; a rolling stock refurbishment programme; and perway, bridges, infrastructure and signalling upgrades.

Value
The project forms part of PRASA’s R136-billion rolling stock fleet renewal programme.

Duration
R51-billion.

Latest Developments
Gibela CEO Marc Granger is positive that the R51-billion deal that will result in the Alstom-led consortium supplying 600 new trains, until 2027 will move ahead swiftly this year.

Until the end of last year, Gibela awaited the handover of the Dunnottar site, which would house the consortium’s plant, as well the test track and depot required for its new rolling stock.

With the environmental go-ahead now in hand, Gibela can start construction on the East Rand site.

The first 20 trains in the contract will come from Alstom’s factory in Brazil, with the remaining 580 to be produced at Dunnottar.

While the East Rand facilities are being built, Gibela will use a test track at PRASA’s Wolmerton site to evaluate the first few trains arriving from Brazil.

The first train – a test train – arrived in South Africa in December last year.

The Wolmerton development is being released to Gibela in a phased approach, PRASA strategic asset development executive Piet Sebola has said.

Work on the first package includes upgrading line four at the site to accommodate the first two test trains.

The test track is far advanced and is expected to be completed in two weeks.

PRASA is working on delivering a new workshop – with lines five, six and seven – to Gibela. Work on this package should be completed by the end of March.

Gibela will move from line four to these new lines once this work package has been completed.

When Gibela moves to the completed Dunnottar factory, lines four, five, six and seven will be used by PRASA’s for maintenance work on the new train sets.

Granger believes that Gibela and the PRASA project will face four challenges this year.

The first challenge will be extensive testing, the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) is expected to give its approval to the project’s rolling stock by October this year, certifying that the train indeed operates according to its design.

The second test train should arrive from Brazil later this month and more than ten trains are on the manufacturing line at the Brazil plant.

The first and second trains will function as test trains. The third train will hopefully start revenue service at PRASA’s Metrorail operations in October, if everything goes according to plan.

Granger has said that each train will be tested to some degree before entering service. The RSR, however, issues its certificate based on the performance of the first two test trains.

The test trains will have to operate not only on the Wolmerton test track but also on the mainline, where they have to reach speeds of 132 km/h – 10% more than its proposed maximum operating speed of 120 km/h.

The second challenge is the start of construction on the Dunnottar site, which is expected to take 18 months and will require quite extensive earthworks, as it slopes significantly, Granger has noted.

Construction of the first building – the training centre – should start in May.

The site will house offices, the factory, a test track and a training centre as one construction project, with a supplier park as a second project.

Gibela aims for both projects to be built simultaneously.

“Another key challenge for us this year is to grow our skills base,” adds Granger.

Gibela currently has 200 employees, with this number expected to increase to 500 in 2017 and 1 500 in 2018 will probably end up with a payroll of 2 000 employees.

“We need to mobilise a massive training programme ahead of the first train being built in South Africa,” Granger has noted.

The first South African-made train is to be manufactured at the Dunnottar plant towards the end of 2017.

A fourth challenge for 2016 is that Gibela requires local part suppliers to deliver their first parts by the beginning of next year.

To give some local suppliers a head start, 20% of the parts on the Brazilian trains, have been supplied by South African suppliers.

Granger has noted that this early phase of the project was used as test bench to assess the capacity of the South African rail industry.

At project peak, Gibela aims for 72% local content on the PRASA rolling stock.

“We can achieve this goal, but it will not happen overnight, as we need to build and develop a robust supplier base,” Granger has said.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Construction of the Dunnottar factory was initially expected to start in early 2015, but delays related to securing the site resulted in work falling behind schedule.

Contact Details for Project Information
PRASA, Moffet Mofokeng, tel +27 12 748 7000 or email momofokeng@prasa.com.
Gibela communications director Pamella Radebe email pamella.radebe@gibela-rail.com.