Vandalism, theft a challenge for freight rail

TRANSNET Freight Rail (TFR) says it is stepping up security efforts to curb incidents of vandalism to its rail infrastructure.

This as a total of 5 138 incidents of cable theft, vandalism of rail equipment, and deliberate cutting of cables were reported last year.

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‘Between April 2019 and January 2020, Freight Rail lost 354 227 metres of overhead cables, resulting in an average of 21 trains being cancelled per day,’ said Transnet spokesperson, Ayanda Shezi.

She warned that those involved in such criminal activities would be arrested and prosecuted as investigations are being undertaken across the country.

The North-East Corridor servicing the mining industry, including coal export to Richards Bay, has previously been among those targeted.

‘Transnet will not tolerate the economic sabotage caused by cable theft or the tampering and damaging of essential infrastructure,’ said Shezi.

This comes as the state-owned enterprise works to improve locomotive availability and stabilise capacity, in order to support coal exporters and the economy.

Shezi said plans are being implemented to build the resilience necessary to deliver the committed 1.6 million tonnes of coal per week, compared to the current 1.3 million tonnes.

‘Low demand experienced at the beginning of the 2020/21 financial year due to Covid-19, coupled with direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic, crippling theft incidents and the under-supply of locomotives, dropped the coal average monthly throughput to 5 614 852 tonnes.

‘In January 2021, coal volume deliveries were also affected by a planned supply chain-wide maintenance shutdown, which was immediately followed by disruptions related to the damages caused by excessive rains following the Eloise cyclone,’ said Shezi.

The improvements completed during the shutdown, however, removed at least 13 temporary speed restrictions on the network.

‘This released capacity for approximately 14 additional train slots per week. This has significantly increased the flexibility by reducing the impediments to the delivery of the weekly committed volumes,’ she said.

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