Restructuring South Africa’s Railways For Competitive Efficiency

[John Ashworth]

Restructuring South Africa’s Railways For Competitive Efficiency

In South Africa, the railway moves 215 million tons of bulk cargoes and road freight moves 1400 million tons of breakbulk. The limited use of the extensive rail system in South Africa is the result of the policy of a centralist government monopoly providing only selected services whilst excluding usage of the rail network by competitive private sector industry. This policy makes the railway uncompetitive, maintaining the 20,000km network for the limited tonnage, whilst enjoying the inefficiencies of a monopoly, protected from competition. This may be contrasted with the highly competitive road freight situation where 400,000 trucks share the road network with 12 million other vehicles and pay for more than their usage...