Railway company Spoornet will undergo a major overhaul over the next five years to the tune of R14-billion, chief executive officer Dolly Mokgatle said on Thursday in Johannesburg.
She said at a media briefing: ”We are fully aware of the severity of our current situation characterised by less than perfect service delivery to our clients, and we are also fully committed to the notion that things must change.
”In order to achieve high levels of efficiency, we will… be injecting capital investment into our business. This will amount to R14-billion over the next five years.”
She said Spoornet’s lack of performance was due to years of neglect, especially in the area of investment.
As a result of this clients perceived Spoornet as being unpunctual, inflexible and costly. The company was also unable to fund capital investment while assets were ageing rapidly and financial performance was suffering.
Mokgatle said staff morale was at an all-time low while there was a poor work ethic.
She said the need for change was urgent but it could not happen overnight.
The changes in the company would be done in phases. The first phase would be mobilisation from this year to next.
From next year to 2007 there would be a development phase and value extraction from 2007 to 2009.
Of the R14-billion 90% would go towards rehabilitating and renewing infrastructure, locomotives and wagons.
”Investment in infrastructure network will focus on the rehabilitation of signaling and overhead power supply systems.
”This will result in more reliable train services and prevent bottlenecks.”
She said the current fleet of locomotives would be upgraded and new ones would be bought for the heavy haul and high-density lines.
”This will give us the ability to run longer and more reliable trains.”
Upgrading the wagons would increase the carrying capacity from 45 tons to 60 tons. Spoornet would also change from friction to roller bearings, thereby increasing the speed of trains from the current 60km/h to 80 km/h.
”This change will also enable us to run longer trains carrying heavier loads and decrease train turnaround times; a factor that will be to the benefit of our customers.”
Safety aspects would also be addressed. – Sapa