State-owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s (Prasa’s ) various infrastructure and rolling stock investment programmes can change the face of South African railway for good, says Prasa strategy, asset and development group executive Piet Sebola.

A lack of significant investment in the South African rail sector has resulted in rail operators having to invest as much as possible in infrastructure to ensure that challenges in the sector can be overcome in future, he noted when speaking at the Railway Safety Regulator’s yearly Rail Safety Conference, in Johannesburg, last month.

Besides Prasa’s R123.5-billion investment in its rolling stock renewal programme, which is aimed at procuring new trains for its Metrorail service over the next 20 years, between 2015 and 2035, the parastatal will simultaneously invest in upgrading and the construction of various infrastructure to support the rolling stock investment.

After rolling stock, Prasa’s highest investment priority was the upgrading of its ageing signalling systems to modern, safe and reliable systems, owing to the interlinked nature of the trains and signalling systems, said Sebola.

“There is absolutely no way that one can operate a train without the correct signalling system to control its movement. In this case, it would be pointless to invest in new rolling stock and not equally so in the country’s signalling system,” he said.

The signalling system upgrades will be undertaken in the metropolitan cities of the Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Western Cape provinces, which are served by Prasa’s Metrorail operations.

Sebola noted that Phase 1, currently 29% complete, was one of two phases in the Gauteng resignalling programme, which would be undertaken over a five-year period at a total cost of R3.8-billion.

This entails the construction of the Gauteng nerve centre in Kaalfontein, Kempton Park – a centre which will house the modern monitoring and control systems – and the installation of interlocking systems in the Gauteng region.

Electronics and electrical engineering group Siemens was awarded the R1.1-billion Phase 1 contract to modernise the signalling system.

Further, Siemens has also been announced as the preferred bidder for the R2.7-billion Phase 2 of the project, which will include the resignalling of the system, with modification on the existing remote control system. Prasa and Siemens are negotiating the contract and terms.

The early stages of project mobilisation are expected to start this month, with the Siemens computer-aided signalling interlocking validation system installation expected to be completed by May.

Meanwhile, the R1.8-billion signalling programme being undertaken in the Western Cape as a five-year contract by transportation solutions provider Thales entails the modification of the existing remote control system, the implementation of the interfacing system with the interlocking system and the resignalling of the system.

Thales is in the early stages of starting the installation of the signalling system, with the works expected to start before the fourth quarter of the 2013/14 financial year.

Sebola noted that the R1.3-billion KZN resignalling programme, awarded to rail technology manufacturer Bombardier Transportation as a five-year contract, would entail the same work as the Western Cape project and adhere to the same timelines.

The benefits of the resignalling programmes include a reduction in the number of signalling failures, which cause train delays and train cancellations, and improved reaction time, as a result of having one centralised operational control centre servicing the main metropolitan regions of the country.

Meanwhile, Sebola said, until the 3 600 new trains arrive, as scheduled in 2015 under Prasa’s rolling stock renewal programme, the parastatal remained committed to upgrading and maintaining its current rolling stock fleet through its R6.4-billion accelerated rolling stock programme, with the aim of improving the reliability and availability of the fleet until 2015.

In its 2013 medium-term expenditure framework, Prasa plans to upgrade and maintain about 1 500 coaches.

Sebola pointed out that the physical rail network also ought to be refurbished and expanded, as South Africa’s last major network upgrade was undertaken in 1986, besides the Khayelitsha rail-line network upgrade in 2008.

He said the size and need of South Africa’s rail network had changed since then and that the new rail network programmes needed to reflect this.

The R1.4-billion permanent way programme will be undertaken at locations in Gauteng, KZN and the Western Cape.

The project entails the replacement of rails, 1:9 and 1:12 turnouts, universal-type turnout sleepers, single and double slips and section fencing, as well as scissor and diamond rail crossing.

The project will also include drainage upgrades, ballast screening, bridge rehabilitation, the refurbishment of rails, the realignment of track using continuous tamping and the refurbishment of track substructure using screening.

To date, the procurement of AY-type ballast wagons is 10% complete. This will be followed by route-layout design changes, which will include an upper ballast subsystem, a sleeper subsystem, a rail subsystem, a fastening subsystem and turnout technology for 120 km/h, 60 kg/m rail.

The 120 km permanent way programme will provide increased availability of the asset for train operators to run their service at increased speed, owing to reliability of the train service.

Meanwhile, in June, Prasa will open one of its newest rail-line extensions, the Bridge City development, in Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu, in KZN. The extension entails the construction of a railway station, in KwaMashu, and a 3.2 km rail line, which will link the Bridge City shopping centre with the surrounding areas and link the new extension to the existing rail lines in the areas.

The project, which was 77% complete, would result in a more efficient train-service opera- tion and increased patronage in the area, noted Sebola.

In addition, a R380-million investment is being undertaken on the Greenview–Pienaarspoort rail extension, north of Gauteng. The extension entails the doubling of the rail line from the Eerste Fabrieke to Greenview, north-east of Pretoria, the construction of a new station at Greenview, the upgrading of the stations at Pienaarspoort and Mamelodi Gardens and the removal of the level crossing at Pienaarspoort.

The doubling of the lines from Eerste Fabrieke to Greenview is currently 80% complete, while the piling for the Greenview station is 55% complete and the platform construction 60% complete.

Sebola said the upgrade of the Mamelodi Gardens station would be undertaken next, followed by the construction of the Greenview station, the upgrading of the Pienaarspoort station and the construction of the rail infrastructure at the Pienaarspoort station.

Prasa is also investing in the R12-billion construction of the Moloto rail corridor outside Pretoria. This corridor will provide an alternative rail route between Mpumalanga and Gauteng, besides the R573 Moloto road route.

The feasibility study had already been completed and was currently under review, Sebola said.

Once constructed, the rail link should reduce traffic accidents, injuries and fatalities resulting from road-transport-related accidents and should provide a modern integrated transport system for commuters travelling between the western regions of Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

Meanwhile, Prasa’s proposed R2-billion Bara link will start at Nasrec station and span the Orlando and Nasrec dam development areas, south of Johannesburg.

The rail corridor then moves south and passes through Eldorado Park and Lenasia to link with the Vereeniging–New Canada rail line in the vicinity of Lenz station, in Lenasia.

This project aims to provide rail linkages to the Soweto areas and access to the Orlando Ekhaya redevelopment, the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus, the development corridor along Potchefstroom road and Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the industrial developments in the Aeroton area, the greater Nasrec redevelopment and Soccer City stadium, all south of Johannesburg.

Transnet says the proposed corridor will transport about 40 000 commuters daily.

Meanwhile, Prasa will invest R3.2-billion in the Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) link and is examining funding scenarios for the project.

Once constructed, the 4.5 km rail will link CTIA with the Cape Town central business district (CBD). In future, the link may be extended to include an eastern link to Bellville and Cape Town’s northern suburbs and a link to the city’s south-east.

Further, the R1.5-billion extension to the Motherwell rail link, situated about 20 km north of the Nelson Mandela Bay CBD and near the Coega industrial development zone, will enhance the role of rail in Nelson Mandela Bay, in the Eastern Cape.

Prasa aims to transport between 15 000 and 20 000 new daily passengers in the short term and hopes to increase this figure to 35 000 daily passengers by 2020.

Prasa considers this extension the first phase of the full Motherwell Loop, which will be about 17 km long.

The project’s rail planning review is under way and is expected to be completed by July.

In the 2013/14 financial year, a detailed design and environmental-impact assessment will be conducted, with construction of the rail line expected to start in the 2014/15 financial year.

Sebola said Prasa expected the extension to be completed by October 2017.