Transnet Freight Rail is a South African rail transport company, formerly known as Spoornet. It was part of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, a state-controlled organisation that employed hundreds of thousands of people for decades from the first half of the 20th century and was widely referred to by the initials SAR&H (SAS&H in

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

). Customer complaints about serious problems with Transnet Freight Rail's service were reported in 2010. Its head office is in Inyanda House in

Parktown Parktown is a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the first suburb north of the inner city (both chronologically and geographically). It is affectionately known as one of the Parks, others including Parkview, Gauteng, Parkview, Pa ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

History

Railways were first developed in the area surrounding Cape Town and later in Durban around the 1840s. The first line opened in Durban on 27 June 1850. The initial network was created to serve the agricultural production area between Cape Town and Wellington. The news that there were gold deposits in the Transvaal Republic moved the Cape Colony Government (supported by British Government) to link Kimberley as soon as possible by rail to Cape Town as part of the colonial dream.

The Central South African Railways (CSAR) was from 1902 to 1910 the operator of public railways in the

Transvaal Colony The Transvaal Colony () was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Second Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the ...

and

Orange River Colony The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after Britain first occupied (1900) and then annexed (1902) the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War. The colony ceased to exist in 1910, when it was absorbed into the Unio ...

in what is now

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. During the Anglo-Boer War, as British forces moved into the territory of the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

and the

South African Republic The South African Republic (, abbreviated ZAR; ), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republics, Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result ...

, the Orange Free State Government Railways, the Netherlands-South African Railway Company and the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway were taken over by the Imperial Military Railways under Lieutenant-Colonel Sir

Percy Girouard Sir Édouard Percy Cranwill Girouard, (26 January 1867 – 26 September 1932) was an Empire enthusiast, a Canadians, Canadian railway builder, High Commissioner of Northern Region, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria and the East Africa Protectorate and ...

. After the war had ended, the Imperial Military Railways became the Central South African Railways in July 1902, with Thomas Rees Price as general manager. With the creation of the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...

in 1910, the CSAR was merged with the

Cape Government Railways The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately ow ...

and the Natal Government Railways to form the South African Railways, which is now Transnet Freight Rail.

Operations

Transnet Freight Rail is a freight logistics and passenger transport railway. It is the largest freight hauler in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The company comprises several businesses: * GFB Commercial (General Freight Business) – Transnet's largest division; handles over 50% of its freight; * Coal Line, serving

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

exporters on the

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

– Richards Bay line; second largest coal railway in the world, delivering 62 million tonnes of coal (also known as "Black Gold") in the year ending on 31 March 2010; * Ore Export Line – dedicated to

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

transport on the Sishen to Saldanha line; * Luxrail – The operation of the Blue Train, which is designed as a five-star hotel on wheels. Transnet also formerly owned

Shosholoza Meyl Shosholoza Meyl is a division of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) that operates long-distance (inter-city rail, intercity) passenger rail services. It operates various train routes across South Africa, carrying approximately 4 mi ...

, the non-luxury long-distance passenger rail service. Shosholoza Meyl was transferred to the

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is a South African state-owned enterprise responsible for most passenger rail services in the country. History In 1910, as a consequence of the formation of the Union of South Africa, all railwa ...

on 23 December 2008. A line in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

is leased to

Kei Rail Kei Rail is a railway project in South Africa. The Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth- ...

Business Units

Transnet Freight Rail is divided into 6 Business Units: *Agriculture and Bulk Liquids ("ABL") *Coal Business Unit (Coal Line) *Intermodal (Container) and Automotive Business Unit ("CAB") (Johannesburg-Durban Line) *Iron Ore and Manganese Business Unit (Kimberley-Port Elizabeth & Ore Export Line *Mineral Mining and Chrome Business Unit ("MMC") (Witbank-Komatipoort & Phalaborwa-Komatipoort Lines) *Steel and Cement Business Unit ("SAC") The launch of the Business Units took place in a company wide event for all managerial staff on 18 April 2012.

Links to neighbouring countries

The Transnet rail network is linked to all of South Africa's neighbouring countries: :

TransNamib TransNamib Holdings Limited (TransNamib) is a List of state-owned enterprises in Namibia, state-owned railway company in Namibia. Organised as a holding company, it provides both rail and road freight services, as well as passenger rail services. ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

, at Nakop; : Botswana Railways at Ramatlabama; : National Railways of Zimbabwe and the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway at Beitbridge; : Mozambique Ports and Railways at Ressano Garcia; :

Eswatini Railways Eswatini Railways (ESR), formerly known as Swaziland Railway or Swazi Rail, is the national railway corporation of Eswatini. Overview As in the rest of Southern Africa, the rail system of Eswatini is built to the narrow Cape gauge of . ESR ...

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

at Golela and Mananga; :

Maseru Maseru is the capital and largest city of Lesotho. It is also the capital of the Maseru District. Located on the Caledon River, Maseru lies directly on the Lesotho–South Africa border. Maseru had a population of 330,760 in the 2016 census. T ...

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

on the

Maseru branch line The Maseru branch line is a railway line that connects Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, to the railway network of South Africa. Overview It branches from the Bloemfontein–Bethlehem, Free State, Bethlehem line at Marseilles, Free State, ...

(owned by Transnet).

Ongoing projects

* Maputo Corridor: Transnet Freight Rail is developing a plan with the Railroad Development Corporation to transport

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula . It is one of the iron oxide, oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetism, ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetization, magnetized to become a ...

from

Phalaborwa Phalaborwa (translated to English as ''better than the south; phala'' means ''better than and borwa'' means ''south'') is a town in the Mopani District Municipality, Limpopo province, South Africa. Name The place was called "Phalaborwa" by the S ...

Maputo Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

as feedstock for a proposed

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

plant in Maputo. *In May 2010, Transnet revealed a five-year-plan involving rail projects costing R52Bn. Most of this would be spent on new rolling stock, including 304 locomotives and 7231 wagons. R4Bn would be spent on infrastructure connecting Majuba

coal-fired power station A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...

with the Richards Bay freight railway. * Transnet is upgrading the rail corridor which connect the Port of Ngqura with

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

mines around Hotazel in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

. The corridor would be long, and would mostly involve upgrades of existing lines; capacity is expected to increase from 5·5 million tonnes / year to 16 mpta. *

Swazilink Swazilink is a planned railway in South Africa and Eswatini. Route The main railway would run 146 km from Lothair in Mpumalanga in South Africa to Sidvokodvo Junction in Eswatini. This would reduce the pressure on the Richards Bay line, r ...

is expected to connect from Lothair to

Sidvokodvo Sidvokodvo is a town in central Eswatini, situated south of Manzini. It used to host Eswatini Railway's steam shed, but steam traction has long been abandoned in Eswatini. The station area is now completely fenced and used by carriage repair ind ...

in Eswatini, at a cost of R17 billion.

References

External links

*
Transnet website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311060004/http://www.transnet.co.za/ , date=11 March 2009
South African Trains – A Pictorial Encyclopaedia
Transnet Railway companies of South Africa