Increasing the railway network traffic of the subcontinent will be among the key priorities of the new Southern African Railway Association (Sara).

This was revealed at a media briefing at The Capital Hotel in Cape Town on Thursday where Hishaam Emeran, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) CEO, was elected as the new Sara president.

Sara is the association of railway companies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Emeran was previously the vice-president, while now filling his position is Nixon Dlamini, also the CEO at Eswatini Railways.

“I am humble to be the president of this important organisation. We are looking at how to improve freight and passenger experience and the co-operation between the neighbouring southern African countries to boost our economies.

“Rail transport is crucial for rebuilding our economies. As the board we had a meeting and agreed there is a need to be more proactive in order to see tangible outcomes.

“We are in the process of developing a strategic plan for both freight and passenger railway operations. Looking at the target achievements, we noted a slight decrease in the target volumes and this will be addressed in the implementation plan,” said Emeran.

He emphasised that co-operation between the countries would also benefit the regions in terms of socio-economic development and creating jobs.

Some challenges identified were investment, infrastructure, rolling stock and the need for improved technology.

Dlamini said that the goal was to move goods seamlessly and they were hoping to expand Sara board membership to include the private sector.

Sara executive director Babe Botana said past achievements included end-to-end business agreements in the corridors, more traffic diverted from road to rail and revitalising the SADC railway sub-sectoral committee involving different transport ministries in the region.

“In terms of infrastructure development, there are a number of new projects in the pipeline such as the Mmamabula-Lephalale rail link which will be operated between South Africa and Botswana to transport commodities coal. Then we have the Trans-Kalahari Railway Line (TKR) project between Botswana and Namibia.

“The feasibility studies have been concluded and progress made. However, the groundbreaking has not been done yet, they are looking for funding because it’s a long project, about 1500km. With the Machipanda Line between Zimbabwe and Mozambique, rehabilitation of the railway infrastructure including signalling and communication has commenced,” said Botana. He said discussions at ministerial levels between some of the southern African countries had concluded.

Signing of agreements with the minister in South Africa for projects involving the country after the new administration has been established.

Cape Times