TRANSPORT
This is progress. It is not yet proof. South Africa has spent years mistaking reform architecture for reform itself. Policies, network statements, regulators, and access agreements all matter, but delivery will be measured in freight moved, not documents produced.
The economic cost is measurable. Transnet ' s general freight rail volumes fell from around 226 million tonnes in 2012 to below 155 million tonnes by 2023, a collapse that pushed freight onto roads, inflated logistics costs, and throttled mining export revenues at some of the worst possible moments. Agriculture remains exposed to high transport costs and port delays. Manufacturers and freight forwarders have learned to build inefficiency into their margins. Every load that should be on rail but moves by road adds cost, congestion, and wear to an already strained economy.
The reform programme is built on the idea that private participation can restore freight capacity along the corridors that carry the country ' s bulk exports and industrial supply chains. If it works, it shifts freight back to the mode that should have carried more of it all along. If it fails, the network remains a national asset in theory and a national constraint in practice.
The state will remain central. Rail infrastructure cannot simply be abandoned to market forces, but state ownership also sets the ceiling on private efficiency. Operators can bring capital and discipline. They cannot repair a neglected network from outside the system. Holley names the gap plainly: " Infrastructure remains in poor condition, and there is an urgent need for bankable public-private partnerships to support rehabilitation of the network, improve maintenance and security, and unlock investor confidence."
The Network Statement provides a framework, but framework is not confidence. The Rail Access Agreement must be commercially viable, with guaranteed access and clear service-level commitments. The Transport Economic Regulator must be established and properly capitalised. Those details will decide whether reform becomes capacity or another document.
Transnet ' s caution about phased implementation is understandable. Rail is safety-critical infrastructure. But it also shows why execution speed now matters more than further policy refinement. South Africa has already lost too much time.
Traxtion is not among the newly announced TOCs, but the private rail services and rolling stock company sits in a part of the value chain that will matter if open access is to become capacity. CEO James Holley says reform requires collaboration across operators, investors, rolling stock providers, and technical partners. " Our current role is to help enable the industry ' s efforts by ensuring the timely availability of locomotives, wagons and technical capability required to translate reform into much-needed freight capacity on the network," he says.
Open access needs more than paths on paper. It needs rolling stock, maintenance, trained crews, safe operations and functioning infrastructure. Traxtion has raised capital for a major rolling stock programme, and Holley is clear about the sequencing. " We have invested ahead of demand because we believe rail reform will unlock significant opportunities. The immediate priority is to build the capacity needed to help move rail reform from policy to practical implementation."
“ The immediate priority is to build the capacity needed to help move rail reform from policy to practical implementation.”
The private sector cannot perform a miracle on a network still shaped by underinvestment, theft, vandalism, and slow decision-making. Government cannot keep confusing control with performance. The balance has to be practical, with public infrastructure, private capacity, credible access, and measurable service.
The question is not whether rail reform is on track. It is whether the track is ready. Corridors need to carry freight, not policy ambition. Rail reform is entering the part where speeches become schedules. That is where it will either begin to matter, or join the long siding of policies that arrived with promise and left without freight. �
sabusinessintegrator. co. za 53