Railways Africa Magazine

CEO of TransNamib, Johny Smith, in this Coffee with the Editor, discusses his appointment as President of the Southern African Railway Association (SARA), and his agenda for Southern African rail operators for the next 12 months. The key being integration and a real push of the road-to-rail strategy for the Region. Johny also provides an update on TransNamib’s operations, projects and the recent a...

Railways Africa’s Coffee with the Editor is with Logan Naicker following the recent announcement of his appointment as the new CEO for Alstom Ubunye in South Africa. Logon discusses his time so far with the company, the continuous improvements at the Nigel based facility and what their next steps are. This is over-and-above meeting the supply requirements of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Afri...

A brief Coffee with the Editor, with the Deputy Minister of Transport, Ms Dikeledi Magadzi, following the inspection of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), Wolmerton maintenance depot in Pretoria North, Gauteng, with the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) Board. Whilst we discuss the state of the Wolmerton depot, we also touch on the current status of the station modernization programme...

As a brief background Trans Auas Express (TAE) founded in 1994, drafted a project proposal to the Ministry of Works and Transport in 1996 for the establishment of a rail commuter service between Windhoek and Rehoboth to address road accidents and fatalities. The road between Windhoek and Rehoboth road carries the highest number of commuters in Namibia on a daily basis. Rehoboth, situated 80km sout...

This week's Coffee with the Editor is with Mesela Nhlapo, CEO of the African Rail Industry Association, previously known as the Railroad Association. It is a long Coffee with the Editor, so make yourself comfortable as we cover many topics. Including, the recently established third party open access working group, opinions on the recent SONA, concessions, localisation, designation, the railway man...

Johny Smith - Chief Executive Officer - TransNamib Limited, talks to Railways Africa Magazine about the challenges brought by 2020 and what the plans are for 2021. Johny notes as do most, that 2020 has been a tough year, but the opportunities to look at and analyze their current situation and interrogate areas of improvement have been positive. The implementation of their business plan includes th...

Although Leonard Makwinja role as CEO of Botswana Railways comes to an end soon, we really appreciate the time he made to go through the year that has been and the year ahead. We talk about the progress of railway projects, especially the Mmamabula-Lephalale line, which was announced in the mid-term review of the Governments National Development plan. We touch on their vision of internalising the...

Acting CEO of the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR), Ms Tshepo Kgare in a Coffee with the Editor, discusses key highlights from the recently released State of Safety report. While theft and vandalism has had the greatest impact on the number of incidents, the biggest area of concern is around the safety of people, especially as we start trying to attract people back to rail. Personal safety will need...

Ms Dikeledi Magadzi the Deputy Minister of Transport, joins our editor Phillippa Dean for a Coffee with the Editor, following the release of the Railway Safety Regulators Annual State of Safety Report. Vandalism, theft and encroachment on railway reserves amongst other things, have severely impacted PRASA. But, PRASA has a plan, a new board and the Department of Transport is by all account hands-o...

The RailRoad Association (RRA), recently issued an invitation to the rail industry, to participle in a working group that will focus on Open Access. Open Access to Transnet’s core network was announced by His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, as part of South Africa's Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan. Our Editor took a moment to chat to the RRA, CEO, Mesela Nhlapo to find out more abo...

Phillippa Dean, editor of Railways Africa. Open access, public-private participation - will have a direct impact on the supply base in South Africa. It will enable Transnet to do more, including, earn more. Providing all the people of South Africa the ability to access a safe, reliable and predictable passenger rail service that will be part of an integrated public transport network.

Releasing Gibela’s first socio-economic impact survey, CEO Hector Danisa notes that R6.4-billion had been spent on local content in the four years since inception. This includes the construction of their facility. There are a few things that need to be put into context, especially the timeline as production starts to ramp up and of course how one goes about ensuring that this state-of-the-art faci...

The first time we spoke with Ralph Mills, Chief Executive at Transnet Engineering he had literally been in “office” for just over a week and in the midst of Covid-19 lockdown! One hundred days later, Ralph Mills is definitely a man with a plan!

Nixon Dlamini joined as CEO of Eswatini Railways (previously known as Swazi Rail) in March this year, just as COVID-19 really started disrupting life here in Africa. The 300km railway network plays a pivotal role in feeding the regional railways within the SADC region. Nixon provides the latest details (stages) on current and new projects, specifically the Eswatini link, previously known as the Sw...