During December 20111, the Namibian cabinet held a special meeting to discuss what was described in the press as the railway “crisis”, following four derailments that cost the country “millions”. Ministry of works permanent secretary George Simataa was quoted explaining that the entire Nanibian rail system – last reconstructed in the nineteen-fifties – requires upgrading. A commission was established in 2009 to look into the implications and in particular the projected cost – which was foreseen to be in the region of M$7 billion. “Other matters” came into the picture and the process of finding funding did not proceed.
Every day, an average of eight freight trains use the line between Tsumeb and Walvis Bay. According to technical reports, the rails between Kranzberg and Tsumeb (400km) need to be replaced, at an estimated cost of N$4 million per kilometre. Speed restrictions are in place along this entire length.
Fuel spills at various points are said to have polluted the environment. At least N$1 million is needed to carry out cleaning operations.
Every day, a safety inspection trolley checks the line from Otjiwarongo to Omaruru (137km) before a train traverses the section. Between Erundu and Otjiwarongo (32km), a speed limit of 15km/h applies.

Original article [Railways Africa]

The ITD Project, which envisages a new Mozambiquan port north of the Zambezi river mouth, would provide the shortest route to the Moatize coalfields in Tete province. The Ncondezi Coal Company has signed an agreement with Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique (RTCM) and Minas Revuboe on a deal that would provide the company with up to 10 mtpa of rail and port capacity. A deepwater harbour with initial capacity of 25mtpa is foreseen, eventually upgradable to 100mtpa. A feasibility study is to be financed by RTCM, which is also expected to carry capital costs, but Ncondezi would be involved in the building of a rail connection from the new port to the existing Sena line at Mutarara (about 200km). Ncondezi hopes to start coal production by 2015, to be exported at first via the Sena line to Beira and/or the new route to be completed giving access to Nacala via Malawi.

Original article [Railways Africa]

According to Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) project manager Yehualashet Jemere, most of the preliminary work needed for the new light rail line has been completed and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), has begun construction in the vicinity of Meshualekia and Ayat Village in Addis Ababa.
ERC general manager Getachew Betru expects the first phase to be finished within 30 months. When public service starts, it is hoped to move some 60,000 people per hour on four separate lines including Ayat Village to the Defence Force Hospital (17.26km), Meskel Square to Kality (16.25km) and Lideta to Menilik Square (3.9km). The $US400 million budgeted cost is to be shared between Ethiopia (40%) and China (60%).

Original article [Railways Africa]

Coal mined in Botswana will have to be moved to the coast – for export to India or China – on a new “heavy gauge” railway independent of South Africa, according to Professor Roman Greynberg, senior research fellow at the Botswana Institute of Development Policy Analysis. Writing in the Zimbabwe Independent, he explains:“Cecil Rhodes’ narrow gauge from [the] Cape to Bulawayo is no longer fit for the purpose”. Many in Botswana, he suggests, view South Africa’s proposed railway into Swaziland as “a power play,” undermining local initiatives. In any case, he points out, there is no way the Richard’s Bay Coal Terminal could handle Botswana’s planned 70-90 million tonnes of coal exports annually. Greynberg finds South Africa’s current performance in economic terms unimpressive, reminding readers that the ignoring of warnings given 1n 1998 resulted in the present electricity crisis. The railways, he adds, did nothing about bottlenecks in the past twenty years. The days when everything south of the Congo River depended on the South African Railways are coming to an end, he concludes.

Original article [Railways Africa]

From an official Transnet release:
Public Enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba has sealed an agreement for Transnet SOC Ltd’s purchase of an additional 43 locomotives from General Electric’s (GE) local arm, General Electric South Africa Technologies (Gesat). The agreement takes the total number of locomotives Transnet has bought from the manufacturer to 143.
Transnet group chief executive Brian Molefe and chief executive-Africa for GE Transportation Jay Ireland signed the agreement at Transnet Rail Engineering’s (TRE) manufacturing facility in Koedoespoort, east of Pretoria.
In terms of the agreement, Gesat will supply Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), with 43 C30ACi (TFR class 43) diesel-electric locomotives. The locomotives are to be deployed throughout the country, especially on TFR’s General Freight Business.
Commenting on the purchase, Molefe said: “The acquisition of these locomotives is part of our fleet renewal – a key element of our R110 billion 5-year capital investment programme. Improving the average age of our assets is crucial in our efforts to improve our reliability, efficiency and our ultimate goal of running a scheduled railway.”
In February 2011, Transnet and GE announced they had reached an agreement for the purchase of 100 locomotives – 90 of which were to be manufactured at TRE’s Koedoespoort facility. Production is ongoing and on schedule. To date 27 locomotives have been delivered and are in operation. The first 10 were manufactured at GE’s plants in the United States.
The C30ACi is the first AC diesel-electric locomotive to be introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. These locomotives, which will be used to haul freight and coal, will decrease life-cycle costs, improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
“Transnet is exploring various solutions to raise funding for the batch of 43 locomotives. These will include the possible utilisation of credit support from US Exim Bank, an Export Credit Agency (ECA), in line with our strategy of diversifying sources of funding,” Molefe explains.

Original article [Railways Africa]

According to Sseesamirembe Eco-City: Lake Victoria Free Trade Zone company executive director Beenunula Nunumisa, the proposed Tanga-Musoma railway needs reconsideration. A better route, he says, would be Tanga- Singida-Mutukula-Kampala. This would be a continuous, unbroken railway, whereas the route to Uganda via Musoma would necessitate goods being transhipped to a ferry on Lake Victoria. A branch off a line via Mutukula could be built to Musoma, if feasibility studies support the likely viability of this.
The Tanga-Musoma project (estimated cost $US3.5-4 billion) was initiated by presidents Museveni of Uganda and Kikwete of Tanzania who foresaw a “Trans-African cargo of at least 400 containers” arriving at Musoma every 42 minutes. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with the government of Uganda for the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to conduct a feasibility study costing about $450 million.

Original article [Railways Africa]

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 serious traffic accidents involving public transport occur with monotonous frequency. This outer suburban commuter route is obviously unsuited to genuine high-speed (TGV-type) trains. Other routes being considered include Johannesburg-Durban, whose fearsome topography raises all manner of questions, mainly related to the astronomic cost of unavoidably lengthy tunnels. Johannesburg-Cape Town conjures visions of Chinese super-trains streaking across the Karoo – though whether an all-in time of, say, five hours (at 300km/h plus) will attract people away from aeroplanes taking two hours is a moot point. At least they won’t be stopping in De Aar to change engines. As for the projected route 4 – Johannesburg to Polokwane – let us just say “no comment”.
A special steering committee is currently deliberating these weighty matters.

Original article [Railways Africa]

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 work on the Reef. The diesel part was to allow them to pick up and shunt wagons from non-electrified industrial sidings. Most of the locomotives are allocated to Gauteng depots at Germiston, Pyramid South and Krugersdorp, with a lone example based at Bloemfontein in the Free State
In 1998, forty of these locomotives (38-011 to 38-050) and a number of electric locomotives were sold to Maquarie-GETX (General Electric Finance) and leased back to Spoornet for a ten-year period that expired in 2008.]
According to etched wineglasses produced at the time when a special train ran from Johannesburg to Magaliesburg to commemorate the delivery of the final class 38, the delivery dates were: 38-001 18 April 1993 and 38-050, 30 July 1994.

Original article [Railways Africa]

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 and steam was the most expensive. So the electric rate was paid from Johannesburg to Waterval and the diesel rate from thereon until the accounting people woke up and closed the loophole.
One public holiday, two class 38s with twelve coaches were booked to Magaliesburg. All went well on the outward journey but one failed before leaving Magaliesburg and the single loco hauled the whole consist back to Johannesburg. It has to be said that you could walk alongside the train on the steepest sections but it kept going. The reason, it is believed, is that the 38s had AC traction motors and thyristor controls. This allowed a lower factor of adhesion or a higher tractive effort for a given weight of locomotive than with DC traction motors.
Since basic physics says Power = Force x Speed if the Power is constant, the loco is able to supply a very high tractive effort at very low speed. In the USA this is seen in the Powder River Basin where the AC traction-motored diesel locos crawl out of the basin with enormous trains. They are the same power as the DC diesel locos but their lower allowable factor of adhesion due to AC traction allows them to pull substantially more but at a lower speed.
Trains Galore ran a unique haulage combination of class 25NC and class 38 on a three-coach corporate special to a dam near Pretoria. Both locos were under power and acceleration was startling. The steam loco was taken off at Hercules and the class 38 continued to the destination and back to Johannesburg. “From memory the computer tripped out the system at 105km/h, which we attained on this trip and others. Most spectacular was doing 100km/h through Witpoortjie station and seeing the clouds of dust and rubbish kicked up in its wake.”
The 38s were not used only for shunting. They often ran with full loads on the main lines between Broodsnyersplaas and Welgedacht. A number of years ago, 38s were used to pull the “Witblitz” container express all the way from Johannesburg to Cape Town and back. This saved time by avoiding the need to change engines at Beaufort-West (AC to DC traction) and Kimberley (DC to AC traction). Some of the 120km/h speed limit boards were still in existence between Potchefstroom and Worcester up to 2005.
On Track credits Geoff Pethick, Willem de Beer, and Andre Kritzinger for the above

Original article [Railways Africa]

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 to the deepwater port of Nacala in northern Mozambique. Reuters quoted minister of transport Sidick Mia explaining: “Vale will invest about $1 billion in Malawi over a period of three years for construction and rehabilitation of the railway line and it is expected to employ 4,500 workers of which 70% will be Malawians.”

Original article [Railways Africa]