Blood On the Tracks by Paul Ash - Times

[John Ashworth]

Trainspotting: Blood On the Tracks
Published:Jun 09, 2008
Times
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South Africa’s railway heritage is heading for the scrapheap, but it’s not too late to avert a tourism disaster, writes Paul Ash

It’s been a bad couple of years for South African trains. Not freight trains, of course, for Transnet Freight Rail, previously known as Spoornet, will say rail’s prospects are bright, even as the country’s roads bend and crack under the convoys of heavy trucks carrying cargo that should be going by train. But for steam locomotives, tourist trains and steam safaris, it’s been a long, slow train wreck.

First there was the collapse in 2005 of the Union Limited steam safari train, Transnet’s own museum piece, which, although popular with foreign rail travellers, was hampered by poor marketing, a series of PR blunders and reluctance by national rail operator Spoornet to have this smoke-breathing anachronism taking up space on its rails. Attempts to sell the Union Limited to a private operator have come to nothing. The landlord has not helped move the sale along — it’s extremely difficult these days to run tourist trains on the country’s rail network.

Just ask the private operators who have to lock horns with the implacable railway bureaucracy to be able to run their tour trains. So difficult has this business become that Bushveld Train Safaris, an extraordinarily popular safari train operation run by former schoolteacher Boon Boonzaaier, has resorted to using buses on its “rail” safaris. And as any rail traveller knows, it just ain’t the same.

Spoornet’s reasons for sidelining the private passenger train operators — an industry which generated an estimated R70-million in 2006 — was that it could no longer guarantee the supply of locomotives or coaches for private tours.

Another blow followed in 2006 when Transnet’s own museum railway between George and Knysna was washed away by floods. Given the wrangling over the repair bill, along with the fact that its operator, Transnet Foundation Heritage Preservation, is to be disposed of by parent Transnet, the line is unlikely to open again unless someone stumps up a huge amount of cash.

Museum trains are now running between George and Mossel Bay — but the real value of the operation lies in the more scenic route to Knysna.

Just when rail enthusiasts thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. Last month, scrappers were given the keys to Millsite locomotive depot near Krugersdorp and told to cut up dozens of steam locomotives set aside for preservation. In a statement, Transnet said, “These assets, some of which are in a complete state of disrepair, present a serious risk, health and environmental issue, while presenting an image problem to Transnet.” The trouble here is that it was Transnet that left these assets — including a compound full of historic locomotives and rolling stock — to rot. Locomotives have been stripped of their copper and brass fittings over the years and many of the coaches have been burnt out, allegedly by fires started by vagrants who were living in them.

Now the private operators have been told to identify what locomotives or spares they want and remove them at their own cost. While some of the locomotives could be made “roadworthy” to be hauled by rail to their new homes, Transnet flatly refuses to do this. More heavy trucks on the roads, then, and an estimated R3-million windfall for the truckers.

There may yet be hope for rail tourism following a recent announcement from transport minister Jeff Radebe that Transnet intends to hand over all the tourist and branch lines to the Department of Transport to operate. Until now, many of the branch lines have been off-limits to any operators as Transnet Freight Rail has deemed them unsafe for passenger trains.

Rail tourism is growing worldwide. Luxury trains running on scenic routes are the new cruise ships and it’s no coincidence that many tour companies sell train journeys as “rail cruises”.

South Africa, blessed with a rich railway heritage and beautiful scenic railway lines — many currently closed because they are uneconomic to operate — should be pulling rail travellers from all over the world.

Instead we are squandering a potentially great forex earner.

It is 18 years since Dr Anton Moolman, the then general manager of South African Transport Services, dropped the last fires of commercial steam locomotive operations on the great state railway. It was time, he said, to retire the beasts. However, given that the steam locomotive built 20th-century South Africa, it was important to preserve this heritage.

One of the last tasks given to the various steam loco workshops was to restore dozens of historic locomotives. These were dispersed to depots around the system and were to be used to haul the Union Limited tour train and other steam safaris arranged by mostly overseas tour train companies.

The museum locomotives and the Union Limited were kept busy for another decade. But trains are expensive to run and steam locomotives need coal and watering facilities, and by 2001 this infrastructure had been largely obliterated from the network.

The Union Limited also struggled to make money. Spoornet — losing much of its general freight traffic to road and yet in the grip of a powerful union that prevented it from taking the necessary steps to compete — started shooting its albatrosses.

One of its first actions was to implement a Steam Exit Plan in which it handed over all its steam operations, including the vital museum line, to Transnet’s heritage arm. Under the programme, Spoornet crews were also banned from working on steam locomotives — the clubs would have to provide their own properly qualified enginemen. Trains were also limited to a top speed of 60km/h and no night running was allowed.

Despite the restrictions, the steam clubs have managed to get by. UK tour operators continue to visit in the winter, drawn by South Africa’s considerable attractions — fine weather, unbeatable scenery, good light for photography and a variety of steam locomotives.

Even the demise of the Union Limited did not deter operators from running tours, although Spoornet was proving a difficult host. Some booked trains were cancelled at the last minute while another tour was stopped while the train was at Ashton in the southern Cape. The stranded party — a large group of British enthusiasts — was returned to Cape Town by bus.

Despite the fiasco, the same tour operator was back the following year, drawn by the country’s unbeatable attractions — great weather, beautiful countryside, fine light for photography and scenic railway lines. Other operators, however, began taking their clients elsewhere. As one told the Sunday Times, “I get better service and more help from the National Railways of Zimbabwe.”

However, Transnet’s most recent move — to ban steam-hauled trains from its “core” lines — will seriously hamper tourist train operations. One operator, speaking on conditon of anonymity, said while tour operators understand why steam is not allowed on OREX, Coalex and the busy Natal Main Line, the steam ban on other lightly trafficked main lines is counter- productive. “To get to the branch lines, usually one or more main lines must be first traversed. The ban makes this difficult, if not impossible, reducing access to the branch lines,” he said.

The danger facing rail tourism is more than just obstruction from Transnet. Bureaucratic foot dragging by provincial governments and tourism authorities has resulted in a number of rail tourism initiatives failing before one turn of the wheel.

Meanwhile, the closed branch lines, while resilient if left alone, attract thieves who cut the rails for scrap and sell the wooden sleepers to furniture manufacturers.

It’s easy to steal a railway. All that is required is a truck, metal-cutting tools and a willingness to work late nights.

If this sounds far-fetched, take a drive out to Hartebeespoort Dam and see what remains of the bucolic branch line that once linked Pretoria to Magaliesburg. The line has been closed for a decade while the rail and provincial authorities drag their feet over giving the green light to an operator to run tourist trains.

For eight years, a company called Dam Rail, the operator elect and caretaker, has been trying to protect and rehabilitate the track, while negotiating with officials from the two provinces and three municipalities through which the railway runs.

Director Andy Grudko says the project is now effectively dead. “We couldn’t get any decisions made to save the line. Every department had its own ideas about tourism.”

While Dam Rail’s directors struggled with the bureaucrats, thieves were busy making off with whole chunks of the railway in the middle of the night. Further down the line, farmers have strung game fences across the railway and squat on state property.

Grudko himself collared people stealing track and sleepers but the court case failed due to, as he puts it, “no input from any of the organs of state”.


Elsewhere, the great scenic railways are still largely intact — for now. They loop over the hills to Barkly East and Graaff Reinet, wind through the vineyards to Franschhoek and climb through banana plantations into KZN’s eternal green hills.

There is still time to create a viable rail tourism industry here. But while the authorities chew their red tape, the scrap men are gathering.

Giving Rail a Boost

Save the Branch Lines: Transnet (or the Department of Transport, if Transnet hands over the non-core lines to DoT) should allow private tour operators to run trains on the closed branch lines and trunk routes. If the operators are willing to front the cash to have these lines maintained to allow trains to run on them safely, then what’s the problem? It’s up to the operator to succeed — or fail. Just like any other enterprise. And the lines will be protected from theft.

Lift the Ban On Steam: Banning steam from core routes severely limits tour operators’ options as it makes access to branch lines almost impossible. A well-maintained steam locomotive — as most of those run by the clubs are — is no threat to operational safety. After all, steam locomotives were hauling freight trains at line speed — 90-100km/h — on the Cape Main Line as recently as 1992. The steam operators have also complied with the landlord’s Steam Exit Plan, down to providing qualified crews and safety officers.

Get Provincial Tourism Involved: At least six scenic branch lines are currently closed while Transnet fiddles. Most, like the Banana Express route from Port Shepstone, and the branch line to Franschhoek, are in viable tourist destinations with savvy tourism authorities.

Take A Train Ride: The following operators offer day trips by train. In Gauteng, contact Friends of the Rail (http://www.friendsoftherail.com) or Reefsteamers (http://www.reefsteamers.co.za). Durban has the Umgeni Steam Railway (http://www.umgenisteamrailway.co.za) and just up the road is the Patons Country Narrow Gauge Railway (http://www.futurenet.co.za/pcngr). In PE, take a trip on the narrow- gauge Apple Express (http://www.apple-express.co.za).

Learn From the Union Pacific: The UP, one of the world’s most successful and best-known railways, has an impressive public relations programme: two massive steam locomotives which haul the railroad’s very visible business train — full of UP customers — on long trips around the US. UP clearly feels the cost of keeping the giants is amply compensated by the unbeatable goodwill they create towards the railroad. A brace of fire-breathing steam locomotives roaring into town at the front of a long yellow train will do that. Do little boys — and grown men — still want to go and work for the railway? At UP, probably. At Transnet Freight Rail, probably not. — Paul Ash

[Nathan Berelowitz]

Could not be said ina any other way.

[Steve Appleton]

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[John Ashworth]

What a great article this is! He seems to hit all the relevant points. With
however two corrections. I was among the group of "British Enthusiasts"
"stranded" at Ashton in 2003. Of course I'm not British and neither were a
number of the other participants from around the world. The point being that
these types of photography tours drew from all across the globe, not just the
U.K. Further, I don't believe "the same tour operator" in this case Derrick
Phillips has ever run another tour to S. Africa although he did book on to
another operators tour in 2006...also his last at least for now.

Bruce Anderson
USA