Hard Times on the Rust Belt

[Derek Walker]

There was an interesting article in the Business section of the Sunday Times this morning called

"Hard Times on the Rust Belt"
which was discussing the demise of the branch line and the general state of decrepitude in our rail system.
...."A great chunk of the South African railway system is in danger of extinction. Out in the countryside and away from the mines, a spider’s web of rural branch lines which once connected farmers to their markets are being abandoned to nature — or stolen by scrap thieves in the night."....

[Steve Appleton]

Will post the full article as soon as it's digitally archived.

[Steve Appleton]

Full text of Paul Ash's article which appeared in Sunday Times, Business Times, February 8th, 2009, page 14:

Hard times on the rust belt.
South Africa’s branch lines are in decline and losing them will imperil the country, writes Paul Ash.

"TWO streaks of rust. All the government has." So ran a headline in the New York Times on December 7, 1904. The story was about a badly run, US-government-owned railway in Panama, but it could just as well refer to South Africa in the opening days of 2009.
A great chunk of the South African railway system is in danger of extinction. Out in the countryside and away from the mines, a spider’s web of rural branch lines which once connected farmers to their markets are being abandoned to nature or stolen by scrap thieves in the night. A trip through the rural areas paints a bleak picture. Silos across the country have lost their rail connections. Entire lines have disappeared into the earth as nature takes over. Trees grow on the tracks and rails hide under thickets of weeds. Wheat and maize which once moved by rail now goes by truck but the roads are being pounded
to bits by heavy trucks. And where the trains do run, shippers are often left stranded when too few freight wagons arrive to carry their cargo.
This picture is at odds with the railway presented in warm television adverts on SABC. "Just like the blood flowing through your veins, our system carries the foodstuffs essential to your being... A system that builds. Sustains. And touches the lives of all South Africans."
One man who disagrees is National Chamber of Millers executive director, Jannie de Villiers, who warns of a looming crisis and one that may ultimately affect the security of our food supply. He says it costs 25%-30% more to ship grain by road than by rail. Transporting bulk commodities such as grain is always more efficient by rail, as long as both ends of the logistics chain are linked by rail. Truck transport costs are also at a premium as the truckers maximise their competitive edge. "The road guys know we are in trouble," says De Villiers.
Trouble has been coming down the tracks for some time. About 20 years ago the South African railway system reached almost every corner of the land. In 100 years from the opening of the first railway, from Durban to Point, in 1860, 21 000km of railway were built in the country. About half the system comprised rural branch lines to farming communities. Some of the branch lines were viable, others, built to please country voters, were hopelessly unprofitable and expensive to maintain and operate.
In 1993 Spoornet began shedding its lossmaking railways. The agricultural branches in the Cape midlands were the first to go, with eight lines closed at the stroke of a pen. More lines have been closed since. Country stations were demolished to deter squatters, staff were deployed elsewhere or retrenched, and the rails were left to return to the earth. By 2003, the network of what Spoornet called "light density lines" numbered 9 600km, of which just 5 000km was considered economically viable.
Spoornet, and its new incarnation, Transnet Freight Rail, have responded awkwardly to the problem of what to do with the unwanted branch lines. Proposals to concession or privatise them have, so far, come to nothing. Instead, in what De Villiers calls the "Transnet recipe", the rural network has been allowed to slip away. "If they have an unprofitable line, they
reduce the maintenance, and then declare it unsafe," he says.
The situation seems to reflect a wider attitude towards agriculture. Mining is where the money is and where Transnet has been investing heavily. The heavy-haul lines: Orex from Sishen to Saldanha Bay, and the coal line from Ermelo to Richards Bay are the prime beneficiaries of Spoornet’s multibillion-rand recapitalisation plan. Branch lines, the poor cousins on the plots, got nothing.
Jeremy Cronin, chairman of Parliament’s Transport Portfolio Committee, says Transnet has been straightforward about its priorities. With the recapitalisation challenges facing the company, the core business, heavy haul and the Durban-Gauteng corridor came first, and they could not take on the task of subsidising branch line operations. "Branch lines are not money spinners," he says.
However, neglecting the branch lines will have serious consequences. Heavy freight will shift onto roads, transport costs will
rise and there will be an increase in both pollution and damage to the road network. The logical step, then, would be to make
way for other operators, most likely in the form of public-private partnerships, something for which Cronin remarks there is "huge space".
It may yet happen. In an effort to divest itself of its financial albatross, Transnet said that all branch lines and "noncore"
lines were to be handed over to the Department of Transport, which is to take over the country’s passenger rail services. A Transnet Freight Rail spokesman says Transnet and the department are "currently in discussion on the way forward for branch lines". Transnet also called for "expressions of interest" from outside operators, but the process is on hold until Transnet and the department conclude their deal.
Chris Stretch, director: freight for KwaZulu-Natal’s transport department, says attempts to negotiate with Transnet over the various branch lines in the province have come to nothing. In one case - the question of whether or not the line from Pietermaritzburg to Richmond will ever reopen - his department has been unable to get even a reply.
The result is a stalemate during which time the railway is extremely vulnerable. Track is stolen, level crossings are tarred over and farmers, seeing that the trains are no longer running, start stringing fences across the right-of-way.
"The crucial thing is to keep the railway intact", says Henry Posner III, chairman of the US-based Railroad Development
Corporation. Posner, whose company was a key player in turning around two moribund railways in Malawi and Mozambique, believes that while railways can suffer decades of neglect, there is a point at which the damage is irreversible. Repairing it then becomes like peeling a bad onion. Market forces will ultimately decide whether a branch line is viable. "Not all branch lines have a future," says Posner. "If there is no business, then there is no point in operating the line."
That, however, does not mean that the track should be closed. "If the demand for a (rail) service arises later, at least the infrastructure will be there. If you must, use tourist trains to keep the line open."

The complete page in PDF format is attached (warning: very large file - 2.1 MB)