TFR resumes limited service on North East Corridor branch lines
State-owned Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has resumed limited train services, primarily on the North East Corridor branch lines in Witbank, Belfast, Lydenburg and Steelpoort, following a massive service disruption caused by floods during the past week.
Operations started in earnest on February 13 across the corridor branchline network, with TFR teams continuing to work on clearing staged trains and the backlog on the Witbank to Richards Bay corridor, a channel for exporting coal, chrome and ferrochrome.
The decision to resume services follows an extensive safety exercise, which included a trolley trip by TFR engineers.
"TFR engineers, maintenance and safety teams are on the ground 24/7 and continue to work towards the repair and rehabilitation of the remaining part of the rail network, notably the over-border regional links with TCM/Maputo and eSwatini, where massive floods caused the most damage, namely rail washaways," TFR says.
Further, the network between Waterval Boven – also known as Emgwenya – Nelspruit and Komatipoort remains suspended owing to falling rock boulders blocking off the line, which is a direct consequence of stronger than usual rainfall patterns in this region, and has negatively impacted on the rock phosphate and magnetite flows to Richards Bay, it adds.
Full resumption of services will happen once the lines are declared safe. TFR continues with the rehabilitation work and continues to keep its customers and stakeholders updated on the status of the rail service as well as the on-going recovery efforts, it states.
"TFR would like to thank all stakeholders, including members of the community across the rail corridors, and customers, as well as our employees who have worked tirelessly in ensuring that repair operations are done efficiently and effectively."
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation