Swazilink is a planned railway in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

and

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its ...

Route

The main railway would run 146 km from Lothair in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

in South Africa to

Sidvokodvo Junction Sidvokodvo is a town in central Eswatini, situated south of Manzini. For a tourist, it is of very little appeal. It used to host Eswatini Railway's steam shed, but steam traction has long been abandoned in Eswatini. The station area is now comple ...

in Eswatini. This would reduce the pressure on the

Richards Bay Richards Bay ( af, Richardsbaai) is a town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, which makes it one of the country's largest harbours. Richards Bay also has the deepest natural h ...

line, removing general freight traffic, hence allowing more coal export trains and reducing the volume of coal transported by road. There are also plans for 600 km of connecting railways, and this route fits with several other

Transnet Transnet SOC Ltd is a large South African rail, port and pipeline company, headquartered in the Carlton Centre in Johannesburg. It was formed as a limited company on 1 April 1990. A majority of the company's stock is owned by the Departmen ...

infrastructure projects which concentrate on coal transport. This would also allow further development of the railway which takes coal from the Waterberg Coalfield via Ermelo to Richards Bay; the Waterberg coalfields have South Africa's biggest undeveloped coal reserves.

Project

The project officially began in January 2012 and was initially expected to cost between R15bn and R17bn, with the South African government paying up to R12bn. The Swazi government suggested that PPP would be used, or another source of external funding. The Lothair -

Sidvokodvo Sidvokodvo is a town in central Eswatini, situated south of Manzini. For a tourist, it is of very little appeal. It used to host Eswatini Railway's steam shed, but steam traction has long been abandoned in Eswatini. The station area is now comple ...

line itself was forecast to cost R7.3 billion, and another R8.6 billion would be spent on connecting railways. The first trains were expected to start running in 2015 or 2016. In July 2014, Swazi Railways estimated that the link would cost R17 billion and could enter service in 2017.

is acquiring

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

locomotives for the line.

References

{{reflist Rail transport in Eswatini Railway lines in South Africa 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in South Africa