This follows
Cabinet approval on 23 March 2022 of the White Paper on National Rail Policy
(“Rail Policy”). The Rail Policy introduces radical structural reforms in the
sector that are intended to enable and facilitate private sector investment,
optimal utilisation of rail and effective economic regulation of rail that
enables equitable access to the rail network and ensures that it is properly
maintained. This access will ultimately be regulated by the soon to be
established Transport Economic Regulator.
The Policy aims to liberalise the rail sector by regulating rail infrastructure and providing private train operating companies with access to the freight rail network. This process of liberalisation has been enabled by the introduction of two policies, namely the National Rail Policy White Paper (2022) and the Economic Regulation of Transport Bill (2022) (ERT).
A Transport Economic Regulator (TER) is also going to be established to set prices for the sale of train slots, and regulate the access regime, include pricing, compliance, penalties and the resolution of disputes between IMs and Train Operating Companies (TOCs).
The key commercial objectives of the Infrastructure Manager are to maximise network utilisation, increase network density, generate revenue through access fees that will fund network maintenance, rehabilitation, and expansion, and increase rail market share in economic growth sectors by facilitating road to rail migration.
The Rail Policy states that funding for the infrastructure will be provided by Government to enable the Infrastructure Manager to provide network availability and reliability to freight rail operations throughout South Africa in line with investment plans and allocated funding. Access fees will be used to manage the operations cost of the Infrastructure Manager.