Development of Rail Sector Important for Overall Growth - Alive2green

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The declaration goes on to state that women have a place in the development and integration of the African railways. It said national, sub-regional and regional strategies should urgently promote railways as one way of realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which have the deadline of 2015. In particular, these declarations point to the importance of regional railways and SARA as integral parts of the North-South Corridor at a high-level conference held in Lusaka, Zambia in April 2008. SARA is an association of railways in the southern African region, and was formed in 1996, after it was acknowledged that a lobby group is needed to advocate for fair surface transport competition and service delivery by railway. But it is a SADC body, and its actions are guided by the SADC Protocol, which consolidated the existence of SARA, giving effect to the formation of regional associations to facilitative collaboration with other stakeholders. The members of SARA are railway operators in Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But, said Dzawanda, railways in the southern African region and the continent at large are faced with the plethora of challenges, “whose origins are in a big way historical”, such as civil unrest and the fact that the building and maintenance of railway systems are very costly. Railways suffer from lack of investment, and are thus faced with critical capacity challenges. Lack of investment has also resulted in poor conditions of infrastructure, as well as a shortage of locomotives and wagons. And, added Dzawanda, the resource element of railway service delivery should not be ignored, especially in view of the skills drain with many leaving the continent and no capacity to retrain staff, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the sector’s workforce. Notwithstanding the challenges of the sector, performance of railways is high on SADC’s agenda. Regional ministers of transport last year discussed the evaluation of railway concessions, transportation of hazardous materials by rail and approved a handbook on this matter, and considered infrastructure funding and waived a fuel levy for railways, which was welcomed by the industry. The ministers also agreed to create railway funds in member countries after years of lobbying from the industry players. Such a fund, said Dzawanda, would go a long way to level the playing field between the rail and road sectors. “The role of government in rail infrastructure development cannot be understated,” said Dzawanda. But huge challenges still remain. As far as infrastructure is concerned, there is a sore lack of investment in rail tracks – in construction and maintenance – there is a lack of connectivity, which is regarded as the “missing links”, and countries use different gauges across the region. In equipment, there is a shortage of locomotives and wagons, and there is a maintenance backlog of these. The region still has not harmonised its legislation regarding the railway sector and has to contend with different standards, as well as ownership and operations issues.
The Brazzaville Declaration undertook to include rail transport as an indispensable means of transport in national poverty alleviation and to ensure social and territorial cohesion. It gives priority to the integration of railways programmes, particularly to those that are geared towards the interconnection of national railway networks. Hence, it calls for the harmonisation of technical and commercial regulations, and the standardisation of networks to promote inter-operationality, safe operation and good governance, and for greater viability of African railway companies. There is also a call for the support and strengthening of the Union of African Railways (UAR), and for the investigation of the possibility to start a financing facility for railway development facilities, particularly through the creation of an infrastructure fund. The declaration stated that appropriate measures should be considered for the allotment of a “significant percentage” of nations’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to finance the sector. SADC ministers also considered this, but have not yet decided what percentage of the GDP should go towards this. Dzawanda said governments’ investment in rail infrastructure in line with the declaration are critical, but added that governments cannot go it alone; they need the inputs from the private sector in both operations and supply of equipment. He said governments on their part must assist in investments in infrastructure, the removal of tariff controls, the simplification and streamlining of customs procedures and formalities, to level the playing field between the rail and road sectors, waiver fuel levies of rail operators, and provide duty exemptions or concessions on imported railway equipment and materials for recapitalisation purposes. Source Source: New Era Website: www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=13539 Author: Catherine Sasman Date: 12 October 2010
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Development of Rail Sector Important for Overall Growth - Alive2green

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