Transnet Freight Rail is introducing a new 200 wagon train service on its export coal line that will run directly from the Richards Bay Coal Terminal to the mines in Mpumalanga.
This will help the companies to improve their capacity which is likely to exceed by 81 MnTPA in the next financial year, should the coal be available.
The new service, called Project Shongololo (millipede), entails bypassing the Ermelo yard leg of the service, has significantly reduced the train handling processes.
Commenting on the initiative, TFR Chief Executive, Siyabonga Gama, stated that this service will drastically reduce cycle times from an average of 58 to 41 hours for locomotives and wagons.
“Decrease in handling processes of trains allow higher reliability, which is equivalent to improved sustainability and better service predictability,'' he further added.
Prior to the introduction of the service, trains were built at the Ermelo yard through a process involving dispatching 100 empty wagons to the mines for loading and then returning them to the Ermelo yard to be built into 200 wagon trains, which are then forwarded to RBCT. This process was difficult to carry significant train handling and shunting to couple and de-couple wagons.
Project Manager, Pragasen Pillay said ,”The service will increase weekly railed export coal capacity from the current 1.4 MT per week to a potential capacity of 1.85MT per week, equating to a 30% increase in current capacity. The number of exported coal trains per day will increase from 25 to 32 trains. And moving into the fourth quarter of this year we will see 34 trains per day.”
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