Gauteng Smallholder October 2016 | Page 12

NEWS At last! Complete coverage of Gauteng W estward Ho! It's taken us 17 years to do so, but the Gauteng Smallholder's distribution area now covers the whole of Gauteng, following our addition last month of Carletonville, Fochville and Westonarea to our network. For many years our distribution area ended with the smallholding areas just west of Randfontein and, to the south, with the smallholding areas between van der Bijl Park and the N1 highway, leaving, effectively, the southwesterly quadrant of the MOLOTO From page 8 distance to work because of the highly subsidised buses," he says. "The railway will only benefit the people providing the rolling stock and the rail line." Transport analyst Paul Browning says while it is understandable that the 10 www.sasmallholder.co.za province unserved. By our assigning copies to suitable outlets in the western towns, farmers and smallholders in this region can now also enjoy copies of the magazine. For the moment residents in this region should look out for Continued on page 11 government wants to build a railway in the corridor, it would emphasise apartheid spatial planning by continuing to have people travel 80km just to get to work. He adds that operating costs are unlikely to be met by revenue from fares as the service would largely be for low-income workers. "One has to ask how likely it is that there will be developments along the corridor," he adds. K Among the purchases necessary for the new line will be new standard gauge rolling stock, and the much-discussed Afro4000 diesel electric locomotives bought by Prasa from Spain and which have been shown to be too tall for South Africa's rail network will be unable to run on the new track as they have been constructed to run on Cape gauge track, rather than the wider standard gauge mooted for the new link (for which, ironically the Afro4000's original design, the Euro3000 and 4000, was designed).