| TRANSNET FREIGHT RAIL | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Railway Operator, commercialised organisation with the State as its sole shareholder |
| Founded | 1910 |
| Headquarters |  Johannesburg |
| Key people | Mr Siyabonga Gama, CEO Mr Peter Fearnhead, Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Nick Thomson, Chief Financial Officer, Mr Percival Mosweu, General Manager - Technical Department |
| Industry | Train transport |
| Products | Freight transport service |
| Revenue | ~ R14 bn 2006 |
| Employees | ~ 25,000 |
| Website | http://www.spoornet.co.za/ |
| Transnet Freight Rail | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Southern Africa |
| Dates of operation | 1910–present |
| Track gauge | 1067 mm |
| Headquarters | Johannesburg |
Among Transnet's railway service divisions are: Protekon, a transport infrastructure design company; Transnet Rail Engineering (formerly Transwerk, which provides railway engineering services; and Transnet Freight Rail, formerly called Spoornet. Formerly part of South African Railways and Harbours, Transnet Freight Rail is the South African railway system. This state-controlled organisation 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 (its English form, while the Afrikaans equivalent was SAS&H).
Contents |
Operations
Transnet Freight Rail is a freight logistics and passenger transport railway. It is the largest freight hauler in Africa. The company is comprised of several different businesses:
- General Freight Bus - Spoornet's largest division; handles over 50% of its freight;
- COAL Export Line, also known as "Black Gold", serving coal customers on the Mpumalanga - Richards Bay line; second largest coal railway in the world;
- Ore Export Line - dedicated to iron ore transport on the Sishen to Saldanha line;
- Luxrail - The operation of the Blue Train, which is designed as a five-star hotel on wheels;
Links to neighboring countries
Spoornet is well linked to the neighboring countries, namely
- at Ressano Garcia with Mozambique,
- at Golela to Swazi Rail of Swaziland
- at Musina/Beitbridge to the National Railways of Zimbabwe, and the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR),
- at Ottoshoop to the Botswana Railways
- near Upington to TransNamib of Namibia
There is also a link to Maseru in Lesotho.
Ongoing projects
- Maputo Corridor Transnet Freight Rail is developing a plan with the IDC to transport magnetite from Phalaborwa to Maputo as feedstock for a proposed steel plant in Maputo.
