NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Continued from page 1
Export table grapes by rail
Each journey with 32 12m reefer containers takes 29 hours from the Kakamas station to the quayside in the Cape Town harbour. Once sealed by the pack house in the Orange River region, there is no further handling of the container, no delays at weighbridges on national roads, and no waiting in congested traffic to enter the harbour.
Power for the integral refrigeration units comes from a diesel-driven 300kVA generator housed in an ISO container in the middle of the train— 16 reefers up front and 16 reefers behind. The wagons are permanently connected to minimise cable failures, and each wagon has a 380V power supply to which the reefer unit is plugged into. Two generators provide a backup in the event of a generator failure and it has a 7 000l storage tank of diesel. A skilled artisan accompanies the train to take care of any possible failures.
The train may seem a rather outdated mode of transport, but it probably has far greater benefits in modern times than when first introduced: volumes of road traffic and the risk of accidents are much higher; less possibility of hijackings; fewer staff in the form of drivers; and less wear and tear on our costly road infrastructure.
In the year 2000, the train also started to move reefers with export avocados from Tzaneen to Cape Town— a journey of 48 hours— and in 2003, the reefer train project received a Gold award in South Africa’ s Logistics Achiever awards. Other than table grapes from Kakamas, the container train is used mainly for export citrus from Tzaneen to Durban and some to Cape Town.
As part of a strategic development plan, Transnet aims to re-establish the reefer train service to avocado exporters and increase volumes of citrus.
A feeder service between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth harbour is also being planned, but all will depend on the upkeep of the rail infrastructure and Transnet management. Alternatively,
Traffic at the Kakamas station is virtually limited to the reefer train.
private-public partnerships could also enter the arena and seize the opportunity to provide a lucrative service. There also could be less carbon emissions from the rail journey as compared to the 32 road vehicles with diesel gen sets on board, but this would require thorough research before making any such assumptions.
On a historical note, the branch line from Upington via Keimoes was opened
The train has 32 reefer containers of 12m each.
in 1926 as a two-foot gauge railway to serve the agricultural colony on the Orange River. In its heyday it carried 90 000 tonnes of lucerne, 8 000 tonnes of grain, and 4 000 tonnes of raisins. In 1948, it was decided to re-lay the track at 3’ 6” gauge to avoid the need to trans-ship everything at Upington. In present times, it appears that the reefer trains for table grapes are the only traffic on the Kakamas line. CLA
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The diesel generator wagon( blue), with the diesel storage tank on left, is positioned in the centre of the train.
4 www. coldlinkafrica. co. za COLD LINK AFRICA • March | April 2017