Online Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S economy was opened up with the main lines from the south going via Bulawayo to the Hwange coal fields, vital for the fuel needed by railway locomotives and further north and the east-west line from Bulawayo via Harare and Mutare to the new port of Beira were opened in the last years of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th Century.
Road transport was extremely limited and was not competitive for some decades.
At first, the railways had to take over routes served by ox wagons, and even when diesel trucks became available, the railway infrastructure was significantly superior to the road network, hence almost all cargo traffic and a large slice of the intercity passenger traffic went by rail.
Trucks and buses just serviced the feeder routes to the nearest railway station or siding.
Even in the first couple of decades after independence, the railways maintained their dominance, even though investment into replacement rolling stock had largely dried up and significant work needed to be done on the network.
Eventually the lack of investment finance, partly a result of the sanctions against Zimbabwe by Western nations, meant that for all practical purposes trucks took over.
While trucks are certainly more flexible and the containerised traffic for non-bulk goods means that different economic rules apply in this area, generally speaking rail traffic is cheaper and more efficient than trucks on roads, especially for the bulkier and heavier goods.
Trucks do cause more wear and tear on roads and when truck operators have to make a more realistic contribution to road maintenance and upgrades, there are the rising toll fees from this class of users pushing up trucking costs.
The Second Republic has made major strides in building up mining, in the value added products when mineral ores of properly processed before export and in giving Zimbabwe a heavy industrial base, such as the steelworks at Manhize.
This still means ores need to be moved to the processing plants and the value-added products tend to be very heavy as well as bulky.
The investment agreement with the Manhize works is that the rail system will be upgraded to include these works, allowing the cheaper movement of coke from Hwange to add to the local raw materials, and later for the movement of ferrochrome and nickel to Manhize to make stainless steels.
At the same time Manhize operator Disco wants to use railways to move its heavy and bulk end products not just to customers in major Zimbabwean centres, but also the ports for export and the neighbouring countries.
Basically, after looking a number of options, Zimbabwe has taken the US$600 million proposal by the China Railway International Group, a subsidiary of one of the largest railways companies in the world and one which has experience outside its home country.
The initial memorandum of understanding was signed off last year at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), with implementation requiring the financial arrangements to be negotiated and worked out.
Enough progress has been made on the financing packages required that both Zimbabwe and the railway company believe work can start by the end of the year.
While Zimbabwe needs its railway system to become fully operational again, our geographical position makes it essential for the communication networks within SADC, just like our road system.
When you are the country in the middle of a transport network, essential being the hub, you have responsibilities as well as opportunities.
The entire SADC railway network is Cape gauge, that is the rails are 1 067 mm apart. That slightly odd figure corresponds to the 3 foot six inches selected in the 19th century to bring the first railways in the Cape colony over the maritime mountain range.
Even the main line to Dar es Salaam from Zambia, the Tazara railway, is Cape gauge although East Africa generally uses a slightly narrower 1m gauge. The Tazara, built by China, as built as the link from the frontline states and so followed their gauge.
Modern tolerances are a lot more exact than what may have been permitted when the railway pioneers were driving the lines across Africa, so part of the upgrade and rehabilitation of the line will be to ensure that the gauge measures are very precise.
While financing has been seen as the critical non-technical factor, it is not an insurmountable problem.
There will be more than enough traffic on the network to bring in the revenue that will be needed to run the system, provide for its expansion and pay off whatever debt might be incurred on the revamp.
So long as trains are running freely and frequently railways can cope with the finances, and even make profits for reinvestment.
And reinvestment is needed. A major regional requirement is to get the west coast line operational, connecting up the bits that already exist, so Zimbabwe and Zambia can use Walvis Bay.
Botswana is keen on a short-cut main line from the central areas of that country, where its mineral wealth tends to be concentrated, that can take products to Beira more easily.
The lines from the copperbelts of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo though Angola need to be restored as well as part of the regional scheme, and when they are the lines through Zimbabwe will have even more users.
As the railways resume their proper position within SADC in general and Zimbabwe in particular, there will be need for other restoration work.
The heavy industrial sites in Harare and Bulawayo were defined as those with railway sidings at the rear of the factories.
These have become overgrown and unused, but within a short time are likely to be needed again rather than, for example, unloading steel from wagons into trucks for the final couple of kilometres.
SADC sees the strongest long-term economic growth to be built around industry, with manufacturers turning the raw materials from the rich mines and farming areas of the region into products that can be shipped anywhere.
For those products to be competitive in price means the raw materials need to be moved by rail, not road, and for the final container loads of manufactured goods to also be railed,
This is why the deal with China Railway International Group is so important and why it needs to become reality before the end of this year and why the rest of the business world needs to ready to take advantage of the return of the railways as the prime shifter of goods.
