State-owned rail enterprise Transnet and privately owned Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) have jointly agreed to establish a project office.

This structured office will identify projects with the highest impact on coal export volume growth and efficiency and fast-track assessments and interventions where early wins can be realised.

“When Transnet performs, we perform … that is how intertwined we are,” RBCT chairperson Nosipho Damasane explained during her opening address at the RBCT media briefing in Richards Bay on January 27.

“RBCT’s success and the sustainability of the coal value chain are inextricably linked to the reliability, security and capacity of the rail network feeding into Richards Bay.

“Without a stable rail system, volumes are constrained, costs rise and the country loses competitiveness,” Damasane outlined to the journalists at the media briefing attended by Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

RBCT’s collaborative approach to rail reform has involved the coal industry being fully behind the transformation agenda.

“We have established a very good foundation. From the outset, we were deliberate and intentional on how we, as the private sector, will participate,” Damasane explained.

The journey began with a jointly funded technical study on the state of infrastructure to understand the maintenance, refurbishment and investment needed on the network.

Recognising the need for greater precision, advanced scanning and diagnostic assessments of rail have been carried out using gear rail, which identified bottlenecks, failure points, and priority intervention zones where restoration would deliver the greatest reliability and throughput returns.

An execution exercise is now being worked on to ensure that low-hanging fruit is not missed and megaprojects that will give best value are implemented.

Transnet has introduced policy and regulatory determinations that make it possible for RBCT, as a private sector entity, to strengthen the rail system in a structured, compliant and transparent manner.

RBCT and Transnet have been on a joint project planning and execution stage since year-end and it is on this foundation that the two have jointly agreed to establish the project office.