Cape Town - Durban Rail Link

[Lydon]

Plans afoot for Durban-Cape Town rail link
MONDAY NOV 14, 2011

Plans are afoot to build a railway line between Durban and Cape Town, running through the Eastern Cape, in a bid to open up that province for economic development and ease the congestion on the deadly N2 section between East London and Kokstad.

This emerged as President Jacob Zuma answered questions in the National Assembly on Thursday.

Responding to a question from UDM leader Bantu Holomisa about reducing congestion on the Eastern Cape death stretch, recently singled out as the most dangerous road in the country, Zuma said there were plans to address congestion and economic development in the province, including the building of a railway.

"Plans are afoot that we need to deal with the Eastern Cape - not only to deal with the congestion, but also economic development to open up the Eastern Cape as part of changing the economic landscape," Zuma said.

"There are also in the pipeline discussions about the railway line, which would also add to the opening up of the Eastern Cape route, particularly between Durban and Cape Town, of course with East London and other cities in between."

The N2 highway between East London and Mthatha, and between Mthatha and Kokstad, has become synonymous with road carnage.

This emerged in a road fatalities report released recently by the Road Traffic Management Corporation.

The eastern half of the Eastern Cape featured six times in the top 25 most dangerous roads list.
A total of 90 deaths were reported along the East London to Mthatha stretch over a period of 12 months, while 77 deaths were recorded along the Mthatha to Kokstad route.

This was despite the fact that numbers of vehicles using these routes were significantly lower than the country's busiest national roads, such as the N3 between Joburg and Durban.

The other routes in the province to feature on the list of 39 included the roads from:

Port St Johns to Bizana - 33 fatalities;

King William's Town to East London - 31 fatalities;

Queenstown to Mthatha - 31 fatalities; and,

Mthatha to Port St Johns - 26 fatalities.

According to statistics, more than 1 300 vehicles were involved in crashes resulting in the deaths of 8 677 people in the province in the last financial year.

Holomisa has in the past asked the Presidency to prioritise fixing the eastern part of the Eastern Cape's "collapsing infrastructure".

In his question to Zuma, Holomisa suggested congestion on the N2 should be addressed by incorporating these areas into Transnet's upgrading of the country's railway system.

"It would save the government money on maintenance costs of the roads in question," he said.
Yesterday he told Independent Newspapers it was especially important that goods trains could travel through the Eastern Cape to cut down on the high number of truck accidents.

Pretoria News


Source: IOL Property

[Awesome.e]

High Speed Rail? or conventional rail?

[SUNS 25]

cool for SA

[Deebo.]

Wasn't one proposed for johannesburg to durban link that never saw daylight?

[annman]

I think this link will be normal rail. It will simply allow for direct connectivity for freight and passengers via the Eastern Cape from Cape Town to Durban.

The Durban-Joburg high-speed link is still in the long-term planning, but will take years to see the light of day. It is a massive investment, but could become viable in the near future as the N3 becomes strained with vehicular freight and passenger traffic.

[ToxicBunny]

Yeah I reckon the Durban Joburg link will see the light of day, just not anytime soon....

As for a CPT Durban Link... it will be good, but the route through the EC will be all important.....

[Hennie]

A rail link from Cape Town via Eastern Cape to Durban?
The current link between the 2 cities run via LadySmith, Harrismith to Bloemfontein, Kimberley, De Aar then to Cape Town. This existing (and under-utilized) route runs on far easier terrain than that possible closer to the coast. (The Karoo/Free state is far flatter than the Eastern Cape).

One can use the existing line between Worcester and George, repair and upgrade the line to Knysna (to handle heavy goods trains rather than just the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe) and extend it to PE (at huge cost but the bridges will be nice!), extend from PE to EL (incorporating the existing branch line to Grahamstown and then again build a new section from Mthatha to Port Shepstone.

Alternatively one would need a more direct link between, say, Beaufort West to East London and then the link between Mthatha and Port Shepstone.

Either way, you swap the far easier Free State terrain for the rugged Eastern Cape hills.

If more rail capacity between Durban and Cape Town was really called for a direct line between Bloemfontein and De Aar would be good enough. As it stands Transnet has reduced the double track line between De Aar and Kimberley to single track only, meaning that even the Gauteng - Cape Town route is not that busy.

And then there is always transport by sea: both Durban and Cape Town have harbours.

Building a railway between Mthatha and Port Shepstone is a great idea but what is needed is industry in Mthatha itself, not a link to faraway Cape Town.

[Awesome.e]

China GDP per capita = $8,394
South Africa GDP per capita = $10,243

South African's have more purchasing power but why is our infrastructure so 3rd world? The amount of people travelling between Cape Town and Johannesburg and Johannesburg and Durban surely has enough demand for HSR systems not to mention freight between these cities?

[Hennie]

A good place to start would be a survey as to why businesses prefer truck transport. I am convinced (for freight at least) that the guage of our tracks are the least of the problem. Old rolling stock? Poorly maintained track? Inefficiency? Crime at railyards? Inability to keep to a schedule?

The current railway line between Durban and Gauteng is continuous double track already. If it is well maintained and have sufficient modern locomotives it can cope with vastly more than it is carrying currently.

I drove from Villiers to Balfour recently. The railway line past Grootvlei Power station was ripped up, only the sleepers remained. The road was full of coal trucks feeding the power station. 2 out of every 3 oncoming vehicles was a coal truck. It is probably not good for Transnet balance sheet to run this branch line. They dont have to pay for the messed up road.

Why this obsession with replacing rather than just making the most of what we already have?

Have a look at the Saldanh-Sishen line to see just how much a narrow guage railway line can carry.

[HigerBigger]

Originally Posted by Awesome.e

China GDP per capita = $8,394
South Africa GDP per capita = $10,243

South African's have more purchasing power but why is our infrastructure so 3rd world? The amount of people travelling between Cape Town and Johannesburg and Johannesburg and Durban surely has enough demand for HSR systems not to mention freight between these cities?

South Africa may have more GDP per capita than China but China have more Capita and a hell of a lot more........

[Awesome.e]

But Cape Town - Johannesburg Air route is one of the busiest in the world. Why are they still considering it?

[dysan1]

The Western Cape Transport MEC takes a VERY narrow view on this potential development. in essence it is not really about KZN and WC at all, it is about a a continuous and integrated transport network for the whole country. The EC needs investment and most notably in transport and other "enabling" things. We cannot just let WC, KZN and Gauteng grow and leave the rest. If we do this those 3 provinces and the country will suffer as well

New KZN rail link on cards
November 17 2011 at 08:25am
By SHANTI ABOOBAKER and BIANCA CAPAZORIO

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Plans are afoot to build a railway line between Durban and Cape Town, running through the Eastern Cape, in a bid to open up that province for economic development, and ease congestion on the deadly N2 section between East London and Kokstad.

This emerged as President Jacob Zuma answered questions in the National Assembly on Thursday. Responding to a question from UDM leader Bantu Holomisa about reducing congestion on the so-called death stretch, recently singled out as the most lethal road in the country, Zuma said there were plans to address congestion and economic development in the province, including building a railway.

“Plans are afoot that we need to deal with the Eastern Cape – not only to deal with the congestion, but also economic development to open up the Eastern Cape as part of changing the economic landscape,” Zuma said.

Discussions about the railway line were “in the pipeline”.

The line would include East London and cities in between.

A recent report by the Road Traffic Management Corporation revealed that the eastern half of the Eastern Cape featured six times on the top 25 most dangerous roads list. A total of 90 deaths were reported on the East London-to-Mthatha stretch over a year, and 77 on the Mthatha-to-Kokstad route.

This was despite the fact that numbers of vehicles using these routes were significantly lower than the country’s busiest national roads, such as the N3 between Joburg and Durban.

Holomisa had previously asked the Presidency to prioritise the eastern part of the Eastern Cape’s “collapsing infrastructure”.

In his question to Zuma, he suggested congestion on the N2 should be addressed by incorporating these areas into Transnet’s upgrading of the country’s railway system.

“If such a plan were to be approved, it would save government money on maintenance costs of the roads in question,” he said.

Yesterday he said it was especially important that goods trains could travel through the Eastern Cape to cut down on the high number of truck accidents. He would approach the Presidency’s Infrastructure Commission, since infrastructure development was key to economic development in the province.


Eastern Cape Transport Department spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca said that such a line was “long overdue”, and would fit into the province’s Kei Railway plans.

The Kei Railway linking East London and Mthatha was reopened to passengers in June.


There is no railway link between Mthatha and Kokstad, which would allow the Eastern Cape access to Durban and Richards Bay.

It would also link the country’s busiest ports, Coega in Port Elizabeth and Richards Bay, and would go a long way towards reducing damage to the province’s roads.

However, Western Cape Transport MEC Robin Carlisle rubbished the idea.

He said there was already a “very adequate” line between Durban and Cape Town, through Bloemfontein. - Weekend Argus

[Mo Rush]

For now this is just an idea. I can't see them delivering on this, even if the intentions are good.

[ed110220]

This would be a massive undertaking because of how difficult the terrain is in the eastern half of the Eastern Cape. That is surely why a railway was never built there even in the golden age of railways in SA (late 19th-early 20th Centuries) even though a Cape Town-Port Elizabeth-East London-Durban line would have been an obvious route.

There's absolutely no coastal plain in that part of the world, which deflects the N2 far inland on a much longer route. Getting a railway through would be even more difficult.

Cape Town-Durban railway traffic does go by an absurdly roundabout route (whoever would go to Durban via Kimberley?) but even if it was shortened, I don't think it would be heavily used.

With existing routes almost idle, it doesn't make sense building even more. The Cape Town-Johannesburg line runs at less than 25% capacity in the Northern Cape.

[annman]

I perhaps take Carlisle's view. If we're not effectively using our current rail, Transnet is inefficient and rolling-stock is outdated, what's the use of building more tracks?

How I see it: If we're not investing in what we currently have and using it efficiently, why build more of the same underused system?

If Transnet was showing tangible results of increased freight and passenger efficiency on the current rail network, I'd view this link differently.

This is in danger of becoming another Eastern Cape project that looks glam in the beginning, but fails to address the fundamental issues behind the EC's poor economic performance. Then when complete, stands idle or completely underutilised for years and years.