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."