SOUTH AFRICAN HIGH-SPEED AMBITIONS
It seems South Africa is serious about ambitions in the high-speed arena, though whether it understands “high speed” to mean Gautrain’s modest 160km/h or the genuine article (nearer 300km/h) as exemplified in countries like China, Japan, France and Spain is not exactly clear. Project no 1 concerns the Moloto Road north of Pretoria, on which [...]
TRANSNET FREIGHT RAIL CLASS 38 ELECTRO-DIESEL
From RSSA Gauteng’s On Track: Between 1992 and 1994 Spoornet placed fifty class 38-000 locomotives in service. They are still the only dual-powered electro-diesel locomotives in use by Transnet Freight Rail, capable of running either on 3kV electricity off the catenary or on diesel alone. The class 38 was designed to replace steam on pickup [...]
CLASS 38 ELECTRO-DIESEL IN OPERATION
From RSSA Gauteng’s On Track: The first passenger haulage by the class 38 is believed to have been en route to Cape Town for three based there. After that they were used fairly frequently on trains to Magaliesburg and elsewhere. This was due to the vagaries of Spoornet’s accounting system. Electric was cheapest, then diesel [...]
VALE SIGNS FOR LINE THROUGH MALAWI
On 11 January, the government of Malawi signed a $US1 billion deal with Brazil’s Vale mining group covering the rehabilitation of lines in Malawi and the construction of a 100km new link from Blantyre to a point near Moatize in Mozambique. The work envisaged will target the moving of 18 million tons of coal annually [...]
LESOTHO RAIL INITIATIVE
Members of the Southern African Railway Association (Sara) represent each of the region’s railways. The government of Lesotho, which has no railway, is to send observers to all future meetings of the association, which has agreed to support the small landlocked country in its endeavour to build a rail system for itself. An existing Transnet [...]
EGYPT-SAUDI LANDBRIDGE SCHEME
The study on a proposed landbridge project that would link Egypt with Saudi Arabia via a Red Sea bridge, has yet to begin, the Arabic Al Hayat daily reports. Chairman of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council Abdullah Dahlan says Egypt is still undecided on the matter. He is quoted explaining: “The project has been delayed due [...]
UMGENI STEAM RAILWAY
www.umgenisteamrailway.co.za Steam excursion running days: Sunday, 29 Jan 2012: Kloof – Inchanga 08:30 & 12:30 Sunday, 26 Feb 2012: Kloof – Inchanga 08:30 & 12:30
CUT TOLLS, HURT GAUTRAIN
On 13 January, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) said tolling on Gauteng’s freeways, scheduled to start in February, had been postponed indefinitely, to deal with the flood of objections. Commenting, Gautrain Management Agency CEO Jack van der Merwe says scrapping tolls would discourage commuters from paying train fares as the perception will be [...]
CHINA TO BUILD LINES IN CHAD
During 2011, Sudan signed an accord with China, agreeing to the building of a line of about 300km from the western railhead at Nyala, through the Marra Plateau region of western Darfur, to neighbouring Chad, which currently has no railway. Following the subsequent signing of an agreement between Chad’s ministry of transport & civil aviation [...]
GARBAGE ON CFL TRACKS
Caminhos de ferro de Luanda (CFL) has been using volunteers in an organised campaign to remove some 800 tons of garbage deposited on the tracks at Bungo, 30km from Luanda. According to Luanda deputy governor Miguel Catraio, this “significant amount” of waste along the line had been obstructing trains. The campaign followed an appeal by [...]
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