IN a bid to make Spoornet profitable, Transnet plans to shut down all Eastern Cape railway lines with the sole exception of vital goods and passenger routes between Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. Transnet Managing Director Saki Macozoma said it aims to keep profitable lines only – essentially lines linking major centres and the Reef with ports such as Richards Bay and Port Elizabeth. The others will be offered to the private sector “as we face what we believe to be inevitable”. If no interest is shown by the private sector, Macozoma added in reply to a question by Port Elizabeth UDM MP Cedrick Frolick, the lines will lie dormant. Transnet does not want to see lines closed down, but its plan is to maintain lines that contributed to the economy “without compromising the financial viability” of Spoornet. Spoornet is currently retrenching some 1000 employees every month, on a voluntary basis, to put the brakes on estimated monthly losses of about R120-million.