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Cape, Joburg express train 'may help'

Cape Town - A high-speed train between Cape Town and Johannesburg may receive serious consideration to support local industry and export opportunities, said Karl Socikwa, acting chief executive of Transnet Port Terminals (TPT).

He said this could link up with the department of transport’s initiative of looking into an express-train service for passengers and freight between Durban and Johannesburg.

Socikwa also confirmed at a TPT client event on Thursday that Transnet had received wide-ranging local and international interest in the industry’s 7 300km of branch rail lines.

Rail companies from the US and Europe had expressed interest.

A separate division had been created within Transnet to manage the awarding of concessions for the branch rail lines.

Invitations for expressions of interest had been sent out in June, and the process was expected to be completed in the first half of 2011.

The expansion of the Cape container cargo terminal to augment its container-handling capacity to 1.4m TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) a year was expected to be completed by 2012, he said.

For the future, extending the container terminal northwards into the sea was being planned for completion by 2020, increasing the container-handling capacity by another 600 000 containers a year.

This seaward expansion – reclaiming a strip of land about 300 metres alongside the existing wharf – had originally been planned for the container terminal expansion, but had been abandoned because of environmental objections.

Socikwa said an additional port basin to the north of the existing container wharf was planned for 2027. This would expand the existing Cape container terminal’s capacity by 3m TEUs a year.

Latest estimates had it that the current container terminal expansion would cost R1.653bn. Up to the current financial year R985m had already been spent. The most recent projection for this year’s expenditure was R238m, and another R350m would be spent over the next five years..

Although Transnet’s productivity had improved, the turnaround time for ships visiting Transnet’s ports was not what it should be, owing to delays caused by the performance of tugs, marine pilots and the staff who had to moor the ships.

Handling rates were below the set targets.

According to Socikwa, TPT had made a considerable investment in the Western Cape over the past five years, and it would continue doing so for the next five.

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