(Based on a Transnet article)
The Saldanha-Sishen line, Transnet Freight Rail’s (TFR) export iron ore corridor, forms the backbone of the company’s growth strategy.
The potential of Saldanha Bay as a deep sea port lay dormant until 1969, when feasibility studies recognised it as the perfect setting for launching South African iron ore onto the world market.
Construction of the 861km line started on 1 June 1973 and was completed with the arrival of the first ore train in Saldanha Bay on 14 May 1976. It came to be known as “The Orex Line,” Orex being a strategic business unit of TFR, then known as Spoornet.
The operation continued to break new ground in positioning TFR as a business leader and icon in the heavy-haul and rail transportation industries, locally and abroad.
THE MILESTONES

Original article [Railways Africa]

(Based on a Transnet article)
The Saldanha-Sishen line, Transnet Freight Rail’s (TFR) export iron ore corridor, forms the backbone of the company’s growth strategy.
The potential of Saldanha Bay as a deep sea port lay dormant until 1969, when feasibility studies recognised it as the perfect setting for launching South African iron ore onto the world market.
Construction of the 861km line started on 1 June 1973 and was completed with the arrival of the first ore train in Saldanha Bay on 14 May 1976. It came to be known as “The Orex Line,” Orex being a strategic business unit of TFR, then known as Spoornet.
The operation continued to break new ground in positioning TFR as a business leader and icon in the heavy-haul and rail transportation industries, locally and abroad.
THE MILESTONES
• 1 June 1973 – Construction begins
• 14 May 1976 – First iron ore from Sishen arrives at Saldanha
• 27 September 1976 – First export consignment leaves Saldanha on the “Fern Sea”
• April 1978 – Sishen-Saldanha line taken over by South African Railways and Harbours
• 15 November 1978 – First train with Beeshoek (near Postmasburg) ore arrives in Saldanha
• 1979/80 – More than 18 million tons of ore exported in a single year
• January 1980 – First metal concentrate from Aggeneys arrives in Saldanha
• 30 October 1984 – The 100 millionth ton of iron ore is exported
• July1988 – The largest single consignment of ore (293,280t) is loaded
• 26 August 1989 – A once-off, record-breaking “monster train” over 7km in length is entered in the Guinness Book of Records
• 1992 – Total ore exported since start-up reaches the 200 million ton level
• 1994/95 – More than 20 million tons of iron ore exported in a single financial year
• 1995/96 – 22,259 million tons of iron ore exported in a single financial year
• November 1996 – the Sishen-Saldanha line becomes Orex, a strategic business unit of Spoornet
• 20 February 1998 – Amalgamated ISO listing is awarded
• 1998 – Total ore exported since start-up reaches the 300 million ton level
• September 1999 – Gold Award from the National Productivity Institute (NPI) to business partners Orex, Portnet Saldanha and Iscor for outstanding achievement in productivity improvement
• 2001 – The iron ore export channel celebrates its 25th anniversary
• 2001 – Total ore exported since start-up reaches the 400 million ton level
• October 2002 – Winner of the Annual Logistics Achiever Awards for the M-ORE (capacity expansion) project
• 22 February 2004 – The highest tonnage throughput for one week is recorded at 585,012 tons
• August 2004 – Radio Distributed Power (RDP) in proof-of-concept tests and radio receptivity tests by means of voice-controlled distributed power (DP) train
• 2005 – Total ore exported since start-up reaches the 500 million ton level
• August 2005 – Voice-controlled DP test train in both directions, introducing different train compilation to 2004 test
• August 2006 – Locotrol RDP equipment tested on train consists of 5×9E and 3xDE and a single train driver
• August 2007 – RDP test train to verify parameters, witnessed by Railway Safety Regulator
• 17 December 2007 – First ever 342 wagon RDP production train departs from Sishen
• May 2008 – New iron ore mine at Khumani starts railing ore
• 2008 – Total ore exported since start-up reaches the 600 million ton level
• 5 July 2009 – New weekly throughput record of 899,592 tons in a single week achieved
• 6 July 2009 – 1,000th loaded RDP train arrives in Saldanha
• 12 July 2009 – Highest ever weekly throughput of 919,000 tons in a single week
• 19 July 2009 – Highest ever weekly throughput of 932,000 tons in a single week
• 26 July 2009 – Highest ever weekly throughput of 955,800 tons in a single week. First time ever that actual production matches planned production 100%. (Normally the line operates at 95% efficacy).
• 10 August 2009 – One billionth gross ton traverses the iron ore line
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Original article [Railways Africa]

On 4 November, Nigerian minister of transport Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio signed a contract for rehabilitating the Lagos-Jebba (488km) section of the main-line to Kano. He said the government has injected N12.3billion into the project, to be completed in 10 months.
He was quoted saying that Nigeria’s 3,505km of railway “had been enmeshed in myriads of constraints that almost erased its existence. This [the Lagos-Jebba project) is another landmark success recorded by this administration in bringing to reality its unflinching quest for a revitalised, repositioned and empowered rail transport system in Nigeria.
“Sometime in February I embarked on a facility tour of all the rail tracks, workshops and other important facilities of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, so as to know the position of things in the system. It was revealed that the facilities available in Nigeria were enormous to be left unattended to. The rail transport sub-sector was in complete dilapidation.”
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Original article [Railways Africa]

A number of disputes have arisen between the Gauteng government’s Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) and the Bombela consortium, responsible for construction. GMA CEO Jack van der Merwe is quoted saying there have been about 20 variations – some related to slight route deviations, for example – since the signing of the contract and the start of
construction in 2006.
“We have disputes remaining around 10% of these variations, having resolved 90% of the cases,” he told Engineering News. “The contract dictates the process to resolve these disputes… It is likely we will turn to arbitration to resolve the remaining claims.” He declined to reveal the amounts involved. “Some are small; some are of higher value.”
The disputes will not affect progress witht the project.
JSE-listed Murray & Roberts has issued an announcement stating that “additional revenue recognition [for the company] from Gautrain to 30 June 2010 will depend on appropriate progress with the resolution of outstanding claims and variations”.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

A new list compiled by Who Owns Whom for the Sunday Times Rich List, on earnings at South Africa’s top parastatals and other selected state organisations, shows that in 2008, six of the top 10 earners were at Transnet. It paid 12 of its executives more than R4.8 million each. “All 12 appear in the top 20 earners and collectively raked in over R80 million in one year.

“This included massive performance bonuses of, in most cases, more than their basic salary.

“The highest-paid was former Transnet CEO Maria Ramos, who took home R11.2 million, including a R4.85 million
salary and a massive R5.79 million performance bonus.

“Third was Transnet’s former chief operating officer Louis van Niekerk, who earned R8.2 million including a R3.6 million salary and a R4.3 million performance bonus. Since the commissioning of the list, the Transnet 2009 annual report has been published, showing Van Niekerk took a drop in salary, earning R7.2 million in 2009.

“He was followed by Chris Wells, Transnet’s former financial director and now the acting CEO, who took home R7.8 million, including a salary of R3.35 million and a performance bonus of R4.1million in 2008. In 2009, his package also dropped by R1 million. “

Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siyabonga Gama, currently suspended, earned R7.5 million, which included a R3.2 million salary and R3.7 million performance bonus. 

“Transnet’s Pradeep Maharaj and Vuyo Kahla, ranked eighth and 10th, earned R6.37 million and R6.2 million, respectively, including performance bonuses. Numbers 11, 12 and 13 were all Transnet executives.”
One of the comments on this story received by the Sunday Times read simply: “It is incomprehensible that anyone involved with our railways should get a ‘performance’ bonus.”
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Accelerating completion of Gautrain’s airport branch to be ready in time for the June 2010 Soccer World Cup kickoff would increase the price by R1.3 billion. Following this disclosure, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane announced that the project is to continue in accordance with the original contract schedule as an amount of this magnitude would be better spent on roads, housing and social development. She pointed out that the contract never required completion by June 2010, being signed before Fifa awarded the World Cup event to South Africa.
In the words of a 9 November Finance 24 report, the Sandton-airport section was due for completion by 27 June, but Bombela CEO Jerome Govender “has confirmed that the deadline for the first phase would now be October.”
The report quoted Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin saying that national government supports Mokonyane’s decision: “It would be unwise to pay so much to gain a couple of weeks while the government’s coffers are under pressure.”
He added, Finance 24 said, that information in his possession showed Bombela would have been able to meet the earlier date, but “had negotiated very aggressively”. He thought
that French construction group Bouygues, with a 17% stake in Bombela, “may have had something to do with their approach.”
Murray & Roberts has a 25% stake, Finance 24 points out, and both have a 45% interest in Bombela Civils Joint Venture, which is building the Gautrain infrastructure.
The Bombela Concession Company consists of South Africa’s Murray & Roberts, empowerment grouping Strategic Partners Group, Absa, the J&J Group, Bouygues Travaux Publics of France, and Bombardier Transportation of Canada.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Railway operators should be forced to fence off railway lines properly near residential areas, says Cape Town mayoral committee member for social development Grant Pascoe.
He has written to minister of transport Sibusiso Ndebele, asking him for legislation requiring railway operators to provide fencing and make them more vandal-resistant.

In 2007, 227 people died on railway tracks across the country – 80 of them in Cape Town. The situation cannot be allowed to continue, Pascoe says, despite pedestrians putting themselves at risk by using illegal crossing points

Metrorail says most deaths are due to people crossing lines illegally, but those who live near unfenced tracks say they fear for their safety.

The four Metrorail tracks at New Rest, Guguletu, separate the township from Heideveld where a majority of New Rest children go to school. In the early morning, hundreds of Heideveld High School children cross the tracks. They say the alternative route is too far away.

Pupil Sikho Ndlazulwana told a Cape Argus reporter that his seven-year-old sister had died while crossing the tracks on 17 December 2008 but “the Metrorail people said it wasn’t their problem, that there was a sign that says ‘no crossing’, and we should talk to our government about it.”
[ Good to see the word “pupil” still exists. We thought “learner” had knocked it out of existence. – editor
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Original article [Railways Africa]

JSE-listed construction group Esorfranki has been approached by the competition commission which is investigating possible collusion in geotechnical work done for Gautrain. Engineering News quotes CEO Bernie Krone saying: “We are cooperating. However, no collusion took place”.

He told the paper that most of South Africa’s geotechnical companies are doing work for Bombela, which is responsible for Gautrain construction. “They [Bombela] divided up the work packages… Bombela didn’t want all their eggs in one basket. We didn’t even get as much work as we wanted.”

According to Krone, the company went to see the commission earlier this year, when it was asked for information dating back to 1994. The date was later changed to 2004. He said Esorfranki made its submission by the end of August, but had not heard from the commission since. The company had admitted to some “commercial indiscretions”, he explained, this was long before listing. (Esor, Engineering News says, listed in 2006, acquiring Franki Africa in the same year.)

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Original article [Railways Africa]

During the three-month period mid-June to mid-September 2009, Infraset Railway Products supplied 48,000 precast concrete sleepers to Transnet Freight Rail (TFR). Weighing a cumulative 12,400 tons, the sleepers were used in a routine maintenance programme on the 860km Saldanha/Sishen ore export line.
Comprising 31,000 PY pressed-steel shoulder and 17,000 PY galvanised-steel shoulder units, each sleeper weighs ±300kg. Rated at 60MPa, this latest batch was used to replace sleepers where the line forges inland for some 33km off the Cape west coast near Strandfontein. The galvanised units were installed on the 12km portion nearest the coast where sea spray can cause rusting.
The sleepers were manufactured at two of Infraset’s factories, 30,000 units in Brakpan, Gauteng, and 18,000 units in De Aar, Northern Cape. The De Aar factory is jointly owned by Infraset and Empowa Investments through BEE joint venture company Empowa Grinaker-LTA (Pty) Ltd.
Although it took three months to manufacture and deliver the sleepers to site, the actual process of removing the old sleepers and installing new took only 10 days, a period during the second half of September when the line was shut down completely. Two heavy-on-track sleeper replacement machines, a P190 and a P811, both purpose-built for mechanical sleeper installation, were used. The P190 is owned by Lennings Rail Services – which like Infraset, is an Aveng Group company.
Infraset Railway Products product manager Sizwe Mkhize says the sleepers will have to perform consistently well over the next 50 years and handle the anticipated increases in iron ore exports.
Delivery of 12,400 tons of product, over great distances to the site, presented its own set of challenges.
Rail was deemed the most effective transport method and flat-bed NZ wagons were used to carry the sleepers. This called for integrated scheduling between the manufacturing and delivery processes and Infraset worked closely with Terence Appies, an infrastructure resource manager at TFR, to meet the delivery schedule.
Appies commented on several factors complicating the delivery process: “Unlike previous years when the line averaged three shutdowns annually, this year we had to contend with seven, and this placed our resource scheduling under considerable additional pressure. It meant that NZ wagons weren’t always readily available. Moreover, the lines were often being used for the delivery of revenue-generating goods which were obviously given precedence over goods for in-house maintenance, important as that was.
“Good logistical planning and of course timing were crucial to the success of the delivery programme. Once loaded, at either Brakpan or De Aar, the sleeper wagons had to be integrated winto TFR’s goods schedule. Ideally we aimed to deliver sleepers in discrete sleeper-wagon blocks of between 30 and 40 NZ wagons. For quantities lower than 30, the wagons were mixed together with other goods wagons, either at the Sentrarand marshalling yard near Bapsfontein or at Beaconsfield near Kimberley.
“Our scheduling had to allow for delays of up to three days before dispatch from the marshalling yards took place. Besides the availability of NZ wagons, other factors such as the availability of locomotives, line space and crews to man the trains, all had to be coordinated. The last load delivered to site coincided with the shutdown period and this enabled these sleepers to be off-loaded and installed in a single operation,” Appies explained.
TFR currently deploys 207 NZ wagons. An order has been placed for an additional hundred which should be delivered during the next six to eight months.
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Original article [Railways Africa]

Sandstone Estates in the Free State will be running a special week-long event called “Mega Power” during April 2010. For more details or to register as a participant, please visit the website www.steam-in-action.com
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Original article [Railways Africa]