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Road-to-rail policy crucial for rural areas

26th June 2015

By: Dylan Stewart

Creamer Media Reporter

  

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While the South African government has finally indicated its support for a road-to-rail policy, which involves significant upgrades of South Africa’s rail facilities to encourage their being used more for goods and passenger transport than automotive transport, finding a positive practical and socioeconomic outcome, especially for rural areas, will be challenging, says Railroad Association of South Africa (RRA) media and research officer Allen Jorgensen.

He emphasises that South Africa’s rural development and agricultural production issues need to be addressed, and notes that agriculture and local manufacturing need to be developed in the country’s mining areas, such as in the platinum belt between Brits and Rustenburg, in the North West, to ensure that they do not turn into ghost towns when mining has ceased.

Jorgensen adds that rural railway branch lines must, therefore, be regarded as an asset and that currently inactive lines should be reopened.

Domestic Decline
Jorgensen explains that, since the late 1980s, general freight railway traffic has declined, especially domestically, with a decease of about 145-million tons of carried load a year in 1981 to just 80-million tons a year in 2010.

The railway system in the 1970s was about 23 500 km long, of which about 7 500 km comprised 80 branch lines, ranging from 11 km to more than 400 km in length.

Carrying agricultural goods and related products, these branch lines mainly served rural communities and transported livestock in times of drought, and were thus considered a lifeline to the rest of the country.

Nevertheless, successive railway administrations closed 47 of these lines between 1983 and 2014 and even uplifted 11 of them. The remaining branch lines are currently in a state of disuse, while some tracks have been stolen and buildings destroyed, says Jorgensen.

In addition, about 90 stations were closed over a 20-year period from the late 1980s and more than 5 000 railway employees, ranging from station and operating staff to track maintenance personnel, lost their jobs or were forced to transfer to new sectors or countries for employment.

Road to Rail
South Africa’s rail-to-road transition began in the 1970s, when government started to relax the restrictions on the sizes of heavy vehicles.

For instance, individual truck payloads were allowed to increase from 24 t in the 1960s to more than 56 t in the 1990s, heavy-vehicle length increased from 13 m to 22 m and the maximum truck axle-load standard of 8.2 t for a four-tyre truck axle increased to 9 t.

This resulted in a 30% payload bonus for the road freight industry – at little cost.

However, the 10% increase in truck-axle loads actually resulted in a 20% to 50% increase in road-pavement wear and tear, depending on the road type and quality. The load increase was not a major problem for high-quality, national and dual-lane roads constructed at a very high cost, but the impact on average provincial and local roads in rural areas has been significantly greater.

Jorgensen highlights the fact that heavy-vehicle overloading has since become an endemic problem, with a recent study on the N3 indicating that, although about 20% of heavy vehicles were overloaded, only between 2% and 2.5% of the offenders were prosecuted. He points out that most rural areas do not have any overload control facilities.

Further, with no control over truck drivers’ working hours, many road accidents are caused by their being fatigued which, combined with the still higher number of accidents occurring as a result of speeding drivers and unroadworthy vehicles, is a major problem.

Jorgensen, therefore, asserts that government should now act forcefully to promote rail transport countrywide, but especially in rural areas where services have languished and infrastructure has deteriorated.

He believes that government should fast-track the establishment of hub-and-spoke business and logistics distribution centres and that it should employ more intermodal systems, particularly where the viability of branch and secondary lines can be enhanced.

Jorgensen adds that the creation of rural intermodal distribution facilities should be promoted and underwritten by public and private beneficiaries.

Road vs Rail
“Now that government is encouraging the return of freight traffic to rail, the question is, how can we achieve it?” asks Jorgensen.

He further notes that, until the true costs of rail and road transport modes have been accurately calculated, it cannot be concluded with certainty which is more costly to the country than the other in terms of infrastructure investment.

This is because external costs must be considered for road and rail transport, says Jorgensen, suggesting that a completely up-to-date and comprehensive study of the external factors of rail and road must be made.

He tells Engineering News that it is generally assumed that rail is competitive only when bulk commodities over long distances are transported and that road is commonly used for perishable and manufactured commodities that need to be transported over shorter distances.

However, Jorgensen points out that total infrastructure and direct operating costs must also be considered. “There is no question that road transport is faster than rail for general traffic, and the convenience of its door-to-door handling service is compelling, but we must consider the hidden costs of providing this service. In this respect, there are negative and positive externalities of road use.”

It is necessary to institute a fair and effective user-pays policy for all road users and not only on a few selected toll roads, he notes, adding that the policy must be implemented countrywide, especially on high-use roads for commercial traffic.

Road hauliers that compete with rail should pay for specific road use. Jorgensen suggests that this can be done using New Zealand’s road tolling system, which is based on a weight-distance charge for commercial heavy vehicles.

Moreover, it is important to define the purpose of the fuel levy which, at the moment, is just a tax that everyone pays. Its current use is not transparent and not linked to actual road use or maintenance costs, states Jorgensen.

Further, national, provincial and regional branch lines should be regarded as an integral part of the national railway system.

Jorgensen points out that wagonload freight is vital to most branch lines and that there is a resurgence in this type of rail transport in overseas countries in Europe and in the US. He adds that government should encourage smaller volumes of cargo for certain commodities using rail, rather than full trainload traffic.

“Government also needs to re-evaluate the country’s long-term domestic transport requirements and must put into perspective the attention it pays to the export of nonrenewable mineral and coal commodities.

Government must consider South Africa’s domestic traffic requirements, and not only its diminishing assets, such as export coal and minerals, he adds.

“While the short-term foreign exchange benefits are obvious, government must consider the country’s long-term growth and development needs, including employment opportunities and skills development to create a sustainable future,” says Jorgensen.

Jorgensen further maintains that, while government should continue to own the rail infrastructure, it should concede certain operations to the private sector so that privatised train operations on branch and secondary lines can be established, which can lead to positive outcomes.

The rejuvenation of the country’s private siding network, particularly in urban industrial townships, should be a priority, he highlights, citing Epping Industrial, in Cape Town, and Chamdor, in Mogale City, Gauteng, as examples of industrial townships where the railway facilities should be rejuvenated.

Jorgensen believes that, to allow for private-sector involvement in South Africa’s rail industry, the country should establish a railway economic regulator to regulate and oversee the partnership between the national railway operator and emerging small rail companies.

“We must weigh up the strengths of the road and rail modes and promote their partnership through appropriate intermodal systems,” he concludes.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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