05 February 2010
	Sending the right signals

There is so much that needs to be built in SA that we can hardly afford to neglect and destroy sound assets that we already have. Thankfully there are signs that government, in the form of Transnet, is beginning to understand this. The national rail network was established as a matter of economic necessity in the first three decades of the 20th century. Many rural towns and farming areas were served by branch lines, many of which were always going to be uneconomic. Indeed, until the 1980s, the railways enjoyed substantial permit and tariff protection against road hauliers. That changed, but the deregulation was so rapid that rather too many babies were thrown out with the bathwater. Spoornet, the predecessor of Transnet Freightrail, pursued the closure of many lines with no less zeal than it had shown in defending protectionism, while objecting in principle to any form of public-private partnership. The first privatisation (in 1987) - the Alfred Country Railway from Port Shepstone to Harding - was delayed to the point of being made unviable, and then continually obstructed by bureaucrats. In other cases, lines that might have been saved instead lay decaying for so long that privatisation ceased to be an option. When the Eastern Cape government managed to reopen the link between East London and Mthatha two years ago, it cost taxpayers over R40m just to rehabilitate the track. In KwaZulu Natal, two long timber-carrying branch lines have been closed (see "Keeping up steam") to Transnet trains, but this time the utility is apparently seeing a bigger picture. It is said to be working with local stakeholders to at least create the conditions for preservation of the line, and so help grow tourism and therefore jobs. Much has already been lost, but with this evident departure from centralised, blunt decision-making, much may still be retained.