But remaining rail services, including containers, are in the doldrums.
Image for illustrative purposes. Picture: iStock
There’s a flicker of hope from Transnet, with news that 165 trains were railed to Richards Bay Coal Terminal last week.
At this rate, coal shipments are on track to hit a target of 65 million tonnes (Mt) by the end of 2026. The improvement in coal line performance is credited to better locomotive availability and sharper security measures, which have curtailed cable theft and vandalism.
The recovery in bulk rail performance means Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has returned to pre-Covid levels and is on track to ship more than 170Mt this year.
This is a sharp improvement on the roughly 140Mt railed in 2022 but well short of the 226Mt railed in 2016.
Volumes crashed in subsequent years due to lack of investment in infrastructure, theft, and maintenance backlogs. The state-owned logistics provider was also bedevilled by operational issues, leading to several changes in several key executive positions.
TFR is still not out of the woods. The positive trend in bulk commodities is not matched by a similar performance for general freight, which has been flatlining for several years.
Ian Bird, senior executive responsible for the Transport and Logistics Focal Area at Business for South Africa (B4SA), notes a marked improvement in TFR’s shipment of bulk commodities such as coal, iron ore and manganese, but the same cannot be said for containers.
“Bulk commodities are easier to handle, and it’s good to see volumes trending upwards – especially after the derailment we had on the coal line in June.
“The more problematic area is general freight, which is complex because these are not single bulk items being shipped. Containers have to be transferred from truck to rail and then stored before shipping. We are still not seeing much improvement in the general freight area.”
Targets, and getting there
Coal, iron ore and general freight account for roughly a third each of the tonnage shipped annually by Transnet, which should hit around
Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy has set a target of 250Mt of total rail freight by 2029, supported by the 11 private train operating companies (TOCs) currently gearing up to launch operations later in 2026 and into 2027.
These private companies are expected to add between 20 and 24Mt a year once fully operational.
Creecy has been a strong advocate of rail reform aimed at opening key rail corridors to private operators.
As part of this effort, government is in the process of establishing a Transport Economic Regulator to oversee economic regulation (including tariffs) across road, rail, ports and aviation.
The regulator is expected to become operational during the next financial year.
Private sector
There’s also been encouraging progress in expanding private sector participation (PSP) at SA’s ports, with a 25-year concession awarded to International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) to upgrade, develop and manage Durban’s Pier 2, the country’s largest container terminal.
ICTSI plans to invest R11 billion in modernising the terminal and intends to increase annual capacity from two million to 2.8 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).
In May 2025, Transnet National Ports Authority signed a 25-year container-handling facility operator agreement with the Grindrod Eyamakhosi joint venture. The agreement, worth R285 million, is aimed at expanding container capacity at the Port of Richards Bay.
Upgrading South Africa’s container ports is seen as crucial to TFR’s ability to increase general freight volumes and achieve the 220Mt target set by Creecy for 2029.
Many of these recent milestones follow the publication of the Freight Logistics Roadmap and the National Rail Master Plan, both of which are designed to open the country’s ports and rail network to private operators while addressing years of chronic underperformance.
As Moneyweb reported this week, ports logistics and infrastructure developer Newlyn has secured a R5 billion financing deal with the Absa Corporate and Investment Banking to develop the Newlyn PX Terminal near the Port of Durban.
Newlyn says its “bespoke bulk cargo terminal developments are engineered to raise efficiency across the bulk logistics sector and are set to transform the country’s port logistics landscape”.
Still no improvement in general freight
University of Stellenbosch professor of logistics Jan Havenga has welcomed the recovery in coal, iron ore and manganese freight volumes but is less optimistic about the outlook for general freight.
“There is no solution yet for general freight. And private TOCs can’t fix it with broken infrastructure. I’m not saying the solution is not getting attention. There are many initiatives out there. But none yet completed sufficiently to turn the tide.”
Speaking at the Africa Rail 2026 conference this week, Siemens Mobility South Africa CEO Florian Kellenberger said Africa’s rail infrastructure gap cannot be solved through concrete and steel alone.
In addition to investment in physical infrastructure, rail networks also require digital signalling intelligence, advanced train control systems and future-ready technologies that increase both capacity and safety.
Cable theft has been a major disruptor to Transnet’s rail operations, something that could largely be eliminated by ‘in-cab’ signalling between trains and wayside systems. These reduce reliance on trackside signals and improve safety at higher speeds.
Transnet is moving towards in-cab and radio-based systems, in large measure to counter the persistent problem of cable theft.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
