SA Railway Association ‘in good hands’
SA Railway Association ‘in good hands’
Cape Town - The Southern African Railways Association (Sara) says the swearing-in of a new president and vice-president yesterday was a positive move.
Hishaam Emeran, CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) and Nixon Dlamini, CEO of Eswatini Railways, were elected as president and vice president respectively.
The appointments were announced at a media conference in Cape Town, where the future plans for the railway sector in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region were outlined.
Sara comprises a range of Southern African rail sector stakeholders and public and private railway companies.
Emeran said he indicated to board members to make a concerted effort to understand the rail systems operations and challenges in various member states.
He said Sara’s strategic plan is to push for tangible outcomes, not only the plans on the table.
“Even if it means that we start the process of looking at improved regional integration where there is none currently, being on the passenger side, freight side,” he said.
Dlamini explained that Sara has been able to move 85% of the budget.
Top of the pile is Mozambique, which takes traffic to the port of Maputo, followed by the Richards Bay line.
“We can see movement in the right direction in terms of traffic that we are trying to move as a region,” he said.
Sara proposes a sustainable, equitable, and seamless surface transport policy for the SADC region, while providing a reliable, economical, and integrated railway transport service.
To date, Sara has achieved several successes like more traffic being diverted from road to rail.
It has also revitalised the SADC railway committee, which is made up of senior officials from departments of transport.
Meanwhile, a new project is in the pipeline between South Africa and Botswana for the movement of coal.
Board member Russell Baatjies, CEO of Transnet Freight Rail, said it is not a new partnership but they will push harder and increase the collaboration within the member countries.
“The intention really is to work closer together so that we can move at the same pace and learn from each other,” he said.
According to Baatjies, there are a lot of trucks going over the border and the intention is to get those volumes onto rail.
“We have had some from a Transnet Freight Rail point of view, we had some positive discussions with several of the Sara members about coming up with solutions,” he said.
Cape Argus