From wagons to rail: the transformation of South Africa's transport network

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19 hours ago

Although today there is very little rail in existence compared to what it used to be in the 1960/80's, it was pivotal to South Africa's advancement.
Image: Supplied.
The drivers of change in South Africa consisted of the pentagon of race, rail, gold maize and war.
I will focus on the vertex of rail.
Although today there is very little rail in existence compared to what it used to be in the 1960/80's, it was pivotal to South Africa's advancement.
The first rail line was one constructed in 1860.
It was three kilometres long and connected the Market Square in town to the Point.
The Natal Railway Company was responsible for this.
It is said that the Natal Mercury had this to say about this initiative 'It will substitute the railway age of animation for the wagon age of sloth. It will set upon this portion of barbarism-bound continent the truest seal of the Englishman's presence. It will supersede a state of plodding but primitive action for one of modern enterprise and rapid progress.'
Rail then was the main infrastructure for freight and passengers for more than a 120 years ago.
This led to some deciding to crown South Africa as a railway country.
The Netherlands-South African Railway Company (NZASM) in 1887, was responsible for constructing the rail line from Pretoria to Lourenço Marques in what was the Portuguese East Africa Colony.
There was also a shorter line constructed as well.
This connected Pretoria to Johannesburg.
In 1861 a small steam engine was imported from Scotland.
The line was to be from the Cape Town harbour to Wellington, a distance of 70 kilometres.
As noted earlier with the discovery of diamonds in Kimberly in 1869, the future of rail could not be brighter.
But a bigger shine on rail was sparked by the discovery of gold on the Reef.
This strengthened the vision of Cecil Rhodes who set his eyes on constructing a railway line from Cape to Cairo.
The rail from Kimberly would stretch to Vryburg, Mahikeng in 1891 – a distance of 363 kilometers.
Around the same time a whole network of rail infrastructure was commissioned.
Amongst these was the ultimate connection of Port Elizabeth to Bloemfontein by 1892. This covered 671 kilometers.
The founding province of Natal re-emerged and by 1891 Durban was connected to Glencoe and the Transvaal.
The rail infrastructure was instrumental in connecting a once disparate hinterland and the gestation of industrialisation was nigh.
There was one ingredient that was outstanding.
This would reduce hostilities between the English and the Afrikaner.
It was then necessary to place the four colonies under unification and the 1910 Act of Union gave birth to a Union of South Africa.
Shortly thereafter the Union the South African Railways and Harbours (SAR&H) was born.
But the birth of the Union excluded the Africans, Coloureds and Indians.
South Africa was to extend territory into Namibia, first by building a 227 kilometer rail line into the German territory of South West Africa.
This was from Prieska to Nakop.
This stretch of rail was built in 82 days.
Once the Germans were defeated South Africa took over the railway authority of South West Africa.
In the ensuing period from 1910, nine thousand kilometres of rail line were added to the South African rail infrastructure.
JBM Hertzog came into power with a slogan of South Africa First.
He continued on the expansion of the rail infrastructure although the Great Depression impacted his ambition negatively when the strong trading partner, the United States abandoned the Gold Standard -Bullion.
Eskom provided power to the rail line and the first test electric train was tested in 1924.
During that period of depression many a desperate in the workforce were rescued, but this assistance was directed at whites.
The period of depression between the two wars witnessed migration into urban spaces on a grand scale and this fueled the industrialisation agenda of South Africa, this despite the depression.
Post WW II the rail infrastructure continued to expand. In 1946 the Kazerne goods depot came into operation and by 1954 the rail mechanical workshops at Koedoespoort were commissioned.
This to date remains a showcase of South Africa's capability in the construction of railway infrastructure.
Expansion of rail infrastructure to develop connectivity for goods and passengers grew at a rapid rate and with it technologies developed.
For instance, the effect of the first crossing of two trains implemented in June 1955 led to the development of the Centralised Traffic Control.
The rail transport connected the Southern Africa region and the Mahalapye-Bulawayo was connected to Vryburg in South Africa thus connecting three countries, South Africa, Botswana (Bechuanaland) and (Zimbabwe) Rhodesia.
As minerals were discovered and the demand for their consumption grew exponentially a network of rails was constructed and notably Grootvlei-Redan; Ogies-Broodsnyerspas; Whites-Allanridge; and Lohatla-Sishen which were nodes for mineral transit systems.
More importantly the integration of rail logistics and coal production marked the beginning into the management of global value chains.
The Richards Bay and the coal line along with the take-over of the Sishen-Saldanha railway line from Iscor a year later, represent major achievements in transforming South Africa into a major ore and coal exporting country.
A century later in 1960 the steam engines were being retired and fast replaced by diesel locomotives.
And as the seventies opened new and better technologies had been developed with the building of South Africa's own goods train.
These were extended to carry 9000 metric tons and these were followed by 21800 tons.
Speed also became part of the deal and in 1976 a railway record was set with a test train that reached 208 km/h, and three years later the record was broken when it reached 245 km/h.
In 1981, South Africa brought together the infrastructure components of railway, harbour, road transport, aviation and pipeline operations under one roof that was to be known as South African Transport Services (SATS).
As these happened the operational management model was transformed into units and divisions, with a strong emphasis on localized management.
A lesson to draw from for the revival of the rail economy.
It was government led.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, among other hats.
Image: Supplied
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