RAMOS THE TRAIL-BLAZER - Interesting read from RA website

[Gabor Kovacs]

Railways Africa website.

RAMOS THE TRAIL-BLAZER

Friday, 11 July 2008

In an insightful article in the Johannesburg Sunday Times, Chris Barron reviews the impressive career and achievements of Transnet CEO Maria Ramos, who told him she intends to leave when her contract runs out in October. One of four children whose father was a bricklayer, she had to fight to earn a bursary from the bank where she was a clerk, because in those days women were not eligible. After gaining a B Comm at Wits, a Helen Suzman scholarship took her to London to do her Master’s. She was Director-general of the South African Ministry of Finance when Transport Minister Jeff Radebe persuaded her – at the age of 45 - to move to Transnet, where she started in January 2004.

“How will the economic slowdown affect Transnet’s future growth?” Barron asked. “We anticipated that growth would slow,” Ramos replied, “so plans for this and next year are based on lower growth rates of 3.5% to 4%.Transnet’s share of the transport market is 12% now. It’s not a cost issue, that’s the frustrating thing. Per ton per kilometre we are cheaper than road. It’s an efficiency issue and a reliability issue.”

The problem is “an ageing fleet of about 2,300 locomotives that were never maintained and keep breaking down. And cable theft. A missing few metres (of cable) shuts down a whole rail network,” Barron learned. “Ramos attributes her success to leaving her executive suite on the 49th floor of the Carlton Centre in Joburg as often as possible. She climbs cranes at Durban port to interview crane drivers and sits on the footplate with train drivers to understand why driving a train in a shunting yard for six or seven hours is such a difficult job.”

According to News24, “Ramos has won over the unions ..... Some of the unions would prefer her to stay when her contract expires at the end of October.... United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utata) secretary-general Chris de Vos says they hope she stays on for another year or two.”

Now my question!
With the current status of Heritage Railways, ie. the Millsite and Humewood Road saga to name a few, will it be business as usual or is Heritage Rail Operators going to see improvements in the coming year/s, now that we will soon see the back of Ramos? Who is going to be her successor, and what cultural appreciations will he or she present or have towards Heritage Rail and other operators using the national network?
Will there be any further disappoints that await Heritage Rail operators, in the short term ahead?

I hope HRASA & SIA is aware of this fact and together will be devising a powerful presentation for the new Transnet CEO incumbent on how we as Heritage Rail operators envisage the future in full co-operation with Transnet, and how much we as a collective have in the past, and will in the future, contribute to the bottom line of Transnets’ financials!

[John Ashworth]

Gabor, while I share your hope that TFR will have a different policy towards heritage rail, sadly I rather doubt whether we have much affect on their bottom line. Others might have figures which prove me wrong (I hope so!), but I suspect that the financial contribution that heritage rail makes to TFR is minimal compared to their overall turnover. There are many good reasons why TFR should find a place for heritage rail, one of which is our financial contribution to the national economy as a whole as part of the tourism sector, but our contribution to TFR's financial bottom line is probably not one of them.