Cape Town - With government moving to migrate the transport of goods from the roads to rail, the Road Freight Association (RFA) has expressed concern given the “poor state of the country’s rail infrastructure”.
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula last week said the government wanted to migrate the transport of most goods from road to rail in the next five years, as this would decrease the large volume of trucks on the roads.
He said the Transport Department also planned to increase the number of traffic officers deployed to hazardous areas and improve conditions of roads in partnership with the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral).
RFA chief executive Gavin Kelly reacted to news, saying the rail infrastructure has been neglected and destroyed.
“In the first instance, rail will need to provide the accessible, efficient, reliable, and secure service that is currently provided by other modes – and mostly so by road transport. Once rail can provide that kind of service, then the customer will use rail,” he said.
The RFA said there were certain routes that needed to be rebuilt.
“The association supports the move of ‘rail-friendly’ cargo to rail. The origination and receiving operations on either side of the railway need to be operational. That will require more than just a ‘move from road to rail’. In the meantime, we need to deal with non-compliant operators (or any users of public roads),” said Kelly.
Cape Times