German practices will aid Africa’s rail development

8th November 2013

  

Font size: - +

The shift from road to rail will benefit passengers and help to reduce carbon emissions, while incorporation of best practices, as pioneered in Germany, will help with the regional integration and management of African railways, says UN-Habitat Urban Transport section head Dr Christian Schlosser. To provide an international perspective on African railway policy at the second Annual African Railway Summit, he was asked to present a case study on passenger railways. .

The second Annual African Railway Summit provided a complete package of knowledge required to build a well-inter- connected railway system in Africa, highlighting top rail projects on the African continent, including South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia and Rwanda.

Organised by conference and training organiser Fleming Gulf Conferences, the summit was held at the Radisson Blu Gau-|train Hotel, in Sandton, Johan-nesburg, on November 5 and 6.

During a presummit interview Schlosser highlighted three best practices that are followed in passenger rail in Germany.

“Good practices in passenger rail in Germany can be observed in relation to establishing public transport institutions, integrated ticketing and coordination between national and regional train services. Firstly, the establishment of metropolitan transit associations/authorities is pivotal for providing integrated public transport services at the regional and the local level,” he says.

Passenger rail serves as the backbone of most systems and is closely coordinated with bus and light rail schedules. Simultaneously, metropolitan transit associations are char- acterised by a coordinated approach to planning, investment, marketing and information, even if there are different individual operators.

“Secondly, there is a comprehensive network of scheduled national train services and coordination with regional and local passenger rail services. The so-called ‘inter-city’ trains link most German cities with coordinated routes and interchange stations at least every two hours, and later on every hour,” says Schlosser.

“Lastly, integrated ticketing across all forms of transit is a cornerstone of successful metropolitan transit systems in Germany,” he notes.

A range of ticket options and time-bound passes are available in Germany to enable travel on a single ticket across various modes of public transport in urban areas. Further, there are individual ticket options that link local travel with the national rail system, mostly operated by publicly owned German rail company Deutsche Bahn.

Considering that more than 80% of the transport in Africa currently takes place on road, rail development needs strategic investment and planning.

The second Annual African Railway Summit was supported for the first time by heavy-haul specialist freight rail company Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), the largest division of State-owned Transnet.

TFR CE Siyabonga Gama was asked to join the summit’s CEO panel, which discussed the holistic development of railways across South Africa. CEOs from rapid rail and bus service group Gautrain, rail parastatal of Namibia TransNamib, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa long-distance passenger rail service Shosholoza Meyl and business development company Walvis Bay Corridor Group were invited to lead the discussion.

Seventy per cent of attendees were from Africa, 10% from Europe, 10% from Asia, and the remaining 10% was made up by attendees from other parts of the world.

About Fleming Gulf

Founded in 2005, Fleming Gulf is a provider of business intelligence through industry-specific conferences, webinars and skills enhancement training courses. Its goal is to link professionals and provide them with commercial acumen, business investment contacts and business opportunities.

Fleming Gulf notes that it delivers comprehensive business events by leveraging its network of industry influencers with specialist knowledge to provide organisations with information that makes a difference in their decision-making in the current competitive business landscape.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION