So unspeakably TRAGIC that South Africa's once vibrant railway network has now been reduced to some 3rd-world undertaking which has failed miserably...
It's always interesting to watch videos that are 10+ years old. All the people talking about what should be done and all the proposed solutions. Yet, I bet if you revisit, none of those things were done. I'm prepared to bet those places are completely deserted now.
Yes they’re deserted and destroyed. Anything worth salvaging has been stripped out. The cost of reinstatement will be unaffordable. Sadly the future of rail in SA outside of commuting and tourism looks bleak.
ANC also destroyed the American once thriving west coast railway line, ANC went further to annihilate the coal mining support towns in Midland England and south east Australia. The fact that electric cars are fast displacing internal combustion engines around the world is all incompetence of the ANC. Jennifer Taylor, you are now a little older with less cognitive ability, no thanks to ANC. VOTE THEM OUT!
This is our new, improved, democratic SA proudly brought to us by FW de Klerk and The NP. Freedom, Prosperity and Security we were promised - Just vote YES for a unitary state controlled by the ANC we were told. Today the infrastructure is collapsing and filth, squalor and poverty is the legacy of the JA-Broers.
Recent blunders by Transnet:. Bought train from Spain worth 3.6 billion rands that are too tall too use on Soutth African rail. South Africa used to build our own trains, now we can not even buy trains without a cock-up. Transnet ordered a custom build dredging boat. They only made one mistake in the design. The nozzle was on the wrong side. So they had to order a new one. And no news of it in the media. A storm hit Kouga harbour near Port Elizabeth. After millions rands of damage the investigation found the affirmative action "safety officers" was watching porn on their work computers, ignoring the safety alarms. And then these officers blamed everyone else. No report in media. Transnet bought trains from China. Each coach include a million rands ($90,000) bonus to some connected politician. and each coach's cost was inflated by 20%. How many more corrupt deals needs still to be discovered?
Growing up in South Africa, we were five toddlers waiting in the car, as our parents had gone into the supermarket. Two black men were arguing next to our car, when suddenly one started stabbing the other, over and over, countless, many times, blood was spilling down the road in broad daylight. In my toddler mind, I thought this was normal. He died right next to our car. Later when I grew up the same happened on my property while they were building our swimming pool a stabbing argument broke out over 2 cents. The funny side to this story is the stabbers' name was "Two-Cent."
End of Railways means end of manufacturing means end of economy . Good Luck for the future , which will see a lot of conflict with so many not working.
welcome to the NEW South Africa where the country has gone from sugar to pure shite in less than a generation . Why did we not pre arrange an independent Cape while we still had the chance ?
And it's even worse today. Staggering corruption, I would not be surprised that many cadres have fingers in the pies of the trucking and transport companies. And roadworks. With stage 6 loadshedding we are having these days, wonder if trains could even run? I have fond memories of train trips between Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. And went to work daily from either Fish Hoek, Muizenberg and False Bay to Claremont, Rondebosch and Cape Town.
A town still called Hutchinson ? How come they haven't renamed that to something like Winnie Mandela or something similarly symbolic to fully represent the complete stuff up of the country.
People came from all over the world to come and see South Africa 's steamers , they were tourist attractions , but I guess these of today don't really know what attracts tourists .
I agree with this footage. The railway was once the life blood of thousands of people across the country. This freight now gets transported by road as the railway is to expensive and takes to long. Nothing has been done to speed up the trains. It still takes 26 hours from Joburg to Cape Town, as it did in the early 1900's. The locomotives and rolling stock are all at least 25 years old. We have had promise upon promise with no real showing that the railways in South Africa will ever be strong.
Another myopic "genius" who can realize only one side of the coin. My previous is below. "There apparently is no place to go in SA to do the "work", everything that has any real value has been expropriated by political insiders who have no idea how to run it. They have destroyed the production of everything from food grains to industrial products with their intractable ignorance, and thus there is NOTHING to transport on the trains. Unless you take into account the now production-less people who destroyed the system to begin with."
It's a big pity that SAR became Spoornet.All the problems really started after they switched over.They will rue this decision for the rest of Thier lives.Long live the memory of SAR.
@transkaroo This happened to the freight business in the 1960s because of road haulage interest groups. One thing that Transnet could do with Government support is increase passenger services. They should not get outside consultants as they will get paid a lot of money to decide on destroying the rail infrastructure. The railway is a national asset and should not be a cash cow for outside interests to milk and then kill. Look what happened in Brasil.
What ? It's not that road transport interests killed the railway business Alan. Even IF that were a major factor currently, there just isn't cargo to haul because the hollowed out industrial powerhouse that was South Africa is so diminished that it is a skeleton of its former self. Note the flood of Chinese made products that employ nobody. Note the labor unrest, the lack of security for anyone who would operate an enterprise. This is the real situation, not a simplistic concept that road transport interests singularly wrecked the railways in SA. It's hard to see this tragic degrading of a formerly well managed country.
They closed it all down because they did not have the knowledge and skills to operate it. Is Sishen - Saldanha still running? Back to the 1800's we go with horse and wagon.
Spoornet needs to develop its CSR. The Planning in South Africa is sadly stuck in the Apartheid era to the detriment of all South Africans. Spoornet is still answerable to Government and with land it's not just about transportation.
Without rail transport and the necessary infrastructure to support it a coutries economy is doomed. Why would the previous people put something like this in place
No doubt the CEO of Spoornet got a nice big fat bonus for the financial austerity taken, at least from his point he can easily say nothings failing......
Why was there not a translation of what was said. Afrikaans is a well recognised language and is taught in the schools of the Western Cape. Road transport , which hit the UK much before South Africa is an aberration in absolute terms.
Shocking how our Railways like other Government places the ANC ruined now the next Government must fix what they ruined we had lovely Trains Stations plus Railway homes shocking every South African is really most upset to see our Country go like this the Railway was an income plus much needed mode of Transport
Perhaps the answer lies with Narrow Gauge or minimum gauge railways which are cheaper to run? If one could get permission from the farmers in the area to get narrow gauge steam in there then there may be an opportunity for tourism into the area. I may look into that.
What a sad site today our railway system has been destroyed by the ANC😢 God help us in this election 🙏 removed all corrupt politicians, starting from the top ,the whole bunch in the nMe of Jesus
sou fã das locomovel, a vapor, e creio estamos, construindo a Norte Sul do Brazil que vai de Anapolis goias até o porto de São Luiz no Maranhão no porto para escoamento dos Graõs, logo sera inaugurada com mais de1950Km. em bitola metrica larga que a SPA está construindo, logo teremos fotos da mesma.
que descaso, da\s ferrovias. por ai, Aqui no Bra\zil estamos, reativando, alguns Presidentes, do passado fizeram foi abandonar o transporte ferroviario, e hoje o arrependimento, mas temos projeto trens Bala, Rio de Janeiro, a Campinas São Paulo, outro projeto Goiania a Brazilia tren Bala em1Horae50minutes, estamos avançando em transporte ferroviario....
Are these commentators on the lack of profitability of the rail system just plainly ignorant in implying that non profitable business can survive. - It can't and it will if tried drag down all of the other industries to the same low level of viability and eventually to failure. .
fifty years ago i saw the writing on the wall. made a decision to leave. i was called a "kaffir boetie and a communist." hahaha. so glad i made the move
@PAUL BATS Well, who else must take the blame for the complete collapse of all infrastructure in this once thriving Country? Take off your Liberal blinkers and acknowledge whats happened in South Africa.
