TRANSNET Freight Railway (TFR) recorded an increase in the total volume carried to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) in the fourth quarter of 2023, with the total of 48.74 million tonnes up from 47.4 million tonnes the previous quarter.
TFR’s North Corridor handles around 41% of total TFR volumes and supports the bulk transport of key commodities including export coal and chrome ore.
TFR expects to carry 49 million tonnes of export coal to RBCT against a total capacity of 60 million tonnes in the financial year ending March 2024. By the end of December 2023, total rail volumes of 35.8 million tonnes had been delivered.
Transnet signed a cooperation agreement with RBCT in November 2023, which encourages collaboration on fast-tracking maintenance and procurement operations.
The 3.5% increase in total volume is welcome news for Transnet, which last autumn put in place a recovery plan following years of problems related to vandalism, locomotive availability and infrastructure reliability.
TFR reports that partnership with the industry is resulting in a decline in the number of cable theft incidents on its network, although some sporadic incidents still occur. Transnet continues to intensify the introduction of security measures to reduce cable theft and infrastructure vandalism.
As part of the current recovery plan, TFR will be split into two entities from April to allow open access to the network: Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM) and Transnet Freight Rail Operating Company (TFROC). The latter will be responsible for rail freight operations, marshalling yard operations and train safety as well as rolling stock ownership and management.
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