Johannesburg - The transport department will commission an independent study into the cost and feasibility of high-speed trains between major cities, Business Day reported on Thursday.
Integrated transport planning deputy director-general Mawethu Vilana said that a tender for the study would be issued this year, the newspaper reported.
The trains run at speeds as high as 400km/h.
High-speed rail needed a wider gauge than the one used throughout South Africa, with Gautrain the country's only standard-gauge railway.
Vilana said the future of rail was high-speed, with government's focus in the intermediate future being the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) using trains travelling at between 140 and 160km/h on the narrow-gauge infrastructure.
He said the Durban to Johannesburg route featured strongly in discussions on high-speed rail.
Cape Town to Johannesburg was also being mooted, though intermediate stops would be needed.There was also demand from Polokwane to Gauteng.