Call for Borderless Communities

Costly delays at border posts, caused largely by a shortage of experienced staff and the manual clearance of goods, have resulted in SA’s rail utility, Transnet Freight Rail, formerly Spoornet, calling for the introduction of “borderless communities” or the creation of a single inspections standard for freight trains.

The Africa Rail Conference was told last month that cross-border freight movement in southern Africa was being compromised by slow and fragmented inspection regimes at the region’s border posts, resulting in bottlenecks that cost the region an estimated $48bn a year.

The bottlenecks have a ripple effect on turnaround times of bulk freight transporters, with trains and trucks delaying ships and ships failing to deliver their goods on time.

Rail operators are often then penalised by their customers for failing to meet their side of service level agreements.

Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siyabonga Gama said recently that the delays at the Beitbridge border post between SA and Zimbabwe at times lasted up to 12 days because of customs clearance procedures.

“You cannot allow that to happen. It’s criminal.”

Thieves on the Zimbabwean side of the border often take advantage of the stationary trains and help themselves to maize and petrol, says Transnet Freight Rail.

“The situation regarding delays is extremely bad.”

SA’s transport department agrees that there are serious problems at the country’s 52 border posts. The department says, however, that most of the delays happen at five of the busiest crossings—Lebombo, Beitbridge, Oshoek, Nakop and Maseru Bridge.

“Manual clearing takes twice as long as electronic clearing, but unfortunately the electronic system is not yet fully functional,” the department says in the National Freight Logistics Strategy. “Facilities have not kept pace with demand at the main border posts.”

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe says while it is important to address the congestion problems, it is equally important that new rail links be built between countries to encourage trade.

He says the rail networks mostly link ports and the hinterland, a legacy of the “colonial economic and infrastructure planning that emphasised mineral extraction and not freight movement”.

To rectify this, the Southern Africa Railway Association has committed to harmonise standards for technical, operating, commercial, marketing, costing and staff training practices in an effort to offer a “seamless one-stop service” throughout the region, irrespective of the national borders.

Transnet Freight Rail says one of the key steps towards the establishment of effective regional rail corridors is the harmonisation of the regional railway tracks. There are at least four different rail gauges in Africa, making seamless interconnection between countries and regions impossible. The rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the two parallel rails that make up a railway track.

In east Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda use a 1m gauge track, while Sudan uses a 1067mm gauge.

Most developed countries use a standard gauge which has a width of 1435mm.

SA and many other countries, including Angola, Botswana, Congo, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe, use a 1067mm narrow gauge, sometimes referred to as Cape gauge.

There are, however, no clear timeframes as to when the harmonisation of rail gauges will be achieved.

Most railway infrastructure on the continent needs a massive upgrade because of decades of no investment.

“In Africa, one of our greatest challenges is to restore and maintain rail infrastructure and to develop corridors to enable the economic role of railways,” says Transnet Freight Rail.

Poor rail infrastructure is cited as one of the reasons for many customers switching their transport business to trucks.

Analysts say that although the cost of trucking goods is about 30% more expensive than rail, customers are prepared to pay the difference because trucks are more reliable and efficient.

They say the use of narrow gauge lines has also contributed to the take-up of rail market share by trucks.

Because of the reduced stability of narrower gauge, narrow gauge trains are not able to run at the high speeds that are possible with broader gauges, unless the tracks are aligned with greater precision.

A slight deviation from the slow speed, and limited loading capacity, often leads to derailments, analysts say.

While most regional rail operators are still grappling with the tough challenge of integrating their rail networks, their immediate challenge is to reduce delays at border posts.

Khulu Phasiwe

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