Private railways company Traxtion expects to begin operating on South Africa’s mainline network by the third quarter of 2026 after concluding a R3.4-billion rolling stock investment programme.

The Harith-owned company described the acquisition as the largest private freight rail investment in South Africa’s history and said it was aligned with reforms under way to open the country’s rail system to private train operating companies (TOCs).

In August, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy announced that 11 TOCs that had applied to operate routes on Transnet’s rail network had met the requirements to do so on 41 routes across six corridors.

It was indicated that some of the TOCs could begin operating in the second half of 2026, while others stated that they were likely to begin operating only in 2027 or 2028, with access to rolling stock being one of the key constraints to entering the network earlier.

Traxtion, which already operates across ten African countries and has a rail and manufacturing services hub in Rosslyn, has confirmed that it will buy 46 Wabtec locomotives from KiwiRail in New Zealand for R1.8-billion, as well as wagons valued at R1.6-billion.

The fleet includes 42 U26C partly modernised locomotives and four C30-8MMI fully modernised locomotives.

The U26C fleet will now be upgraded in batches at Traxtion’s Rail Services Hub in Rosslyn to C30MEI specification to include fuel-efficient 7FDL-EFI engines and advanced Brightstar control systems.

The locomotives will be shipped in four tranches between April 2026 and August 2027, with each batch of 10 to 12 locomotives to undergo a four-month modernisation cycle.

The first upgraded units will roll out in the third quarter of next year, which Traxtion says will mark the historic entry of its trains into South African mainline operations.

CEO James Holley says the locomotives will help lower logistics costs, protect the road network, improve environmental performance, and create jobs.

“We have structured this programme to maximise South African industrial value-add, such as local assembly, supplier development, and skills transfer, while getting modern locomotives and wagons into service as quickly as possible,” Holley states.

Traxtion says that there will be at least 60% local content across the programme and that a minimum of 662 direct permanent jobs will be added during manufacturing, assembly, commissioning and operation.

The added capacity is expected to address about 5% of the national freight rail capacity shortfall, he adds.

South Africa has set a goal of moving 250-million tons of freight by rail yearly by 2030, against current volumes of below 160-million tons and Creecy has indicated that the lion’s share of the 90-million-ton gap is likely to be closed by private TOCs.

Harith CEO Sipho Makhubela says the programme sets a new benchmark for how private investment, aligned with policy certainty and local value creation, can deliver transformative outcomes.

“Harith is encouraged by the reform momentum, which is now translating into measurable commercial and socio-economic returns,” Makhubela adds.

The Presidency’s project management office head Rudi Dicks – who is also overseeing the reforms being pursued under Operation Vulindlela, which includes the facilitation of private sector participation in the rail sector – has welcomed the Traxtion announcement.

Dicks describes the R3.4-billion investment as critical to the reforms under way to open the freight rail network to competition.

“This network sector has always been closed, and has always been operated by Transnet. We are introducing competition and Traxtion is going to be one of the major players on the network,” Dicks says.