| Transnet Freight Rail | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Predecessor: | Spoornet |
| Foundation: | 1910 |
| Location City: | Johannesburg |
| Location Country: | South Africa |
| Industry: | Rail transport |
| Revenue: | ca. R14 bn |
| Num Employees: | ca. 25,000 |
| Parent: | Transnet |
| Railroad Name: | Transnet Freight Rail |
| Locale: | Southern Africa |
| Start Year: | 1910 |
| End Year: | present |
| Hq City: | Johannesburg |
Transnet Freight Rail is a South African rail transport company, formerly known as Spoornet. It was part of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, a state-controlled organisation that employed hundreds of thousands of people for decades from the first half of the 20th century and was widely referred to by the initials SAR&H (SAS&H in Afrikaans). Customer complaints about serious problems with Transnet Freight Rail's service were reported in 2010.[1] Its head office is in Inyanda House in Parktown, Johannesburg.[2]
Railways were first developed in the area surrounding Cape Town and later in Durban around the 1840s. The first line opened in Durban on 27 June 1850. The initial network was created to serve the agricultural production area between Cape Town and Wellington. The news that there were gold deposits in the Transvaal Republic moved the Cape Colony Government (supported by British Government) to link Kimberley as soon as possible by rail to Cape Town as part of the colonial dream.[3]
The Central South African Railways (CSAR) was from 1902 to 1910 the operator of public railways in the Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony in what is now South Africa. During the Anglo-Boer War, as British forces moved into the territory of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, the Orange Free State Government Railways, the Netherlands-South African Railway Company and the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway were taken over by the Imperial Military Railways under Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Percy Girouard. After the war had ended, the Imperial Military Railways became the Central South African Railways in July 1902,[4] with Thomas Rees Price as general manager.[5] With the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the CSAR was merged with the Cape Government Railways and the Natal Government Railways to form the South African Railways, which is now Transnet Freight Rail.
Transnet Freight Rail is a freight logistics and passenger transport railway. It is the largest freight hauler in Africa. The company comprises several businesses:
Transnet also formerly owned Shosholoza Meyl, the non-luxury long-distance passenger rail service. Shosholoza Meyl was transferred to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa on 23 December 2008. A line in the Eastern Cape is leased to Kei Rail.[7]
Transnet Freight Rail is divided into 6 Business Units:[8]
The launch of the Business Units took place in a company wide event for all managerial staff on 18 April 2012.
The Transnet rail network is linked to all of South Africa's neighbouring countries:
TransNamib of Namibia, at Nakop;
Botswana Railways at Ramatlabama;
National Railways of Zimbabwe and the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway at Beitbridge;
Mozambique Ports and Railways at Ressano Garcia;
Eswatini Railways of Eswatini at Golela and Mananga;
Maseru in Lesotho on the Maseru branch line (owned by Transnet).
Transnet Freight Rail is developing a plan with the Railroad Development Corporation to transport magnetite from Phalaborwa to Maputo as feedstock for a proposed steel plant in Maputo.