Riding high: Prasa’s ‘useless’ engines find new purpose up north
There is a happy ending for some of the leading characters in the famous “too tall” locomotive saga that cost the Passenger Rail Agency billions of rand and hastened the demise of SA’s long-distance passenger trains.
Six of the Spanish-built AFRO 4000 locomotives that were found to be too high for parts of SA’s rail network are now working flat-out on freight trains for a private operator on the 1,400km Tazara Railway that runs between Tanzania and Zambia.
James Holley, CEO of private locomotive operator Traxtion, which bought the seven engines at auction in 2019, said the locomotives were already proving to be a success.
“Apart from some electrical issues, none of which caused train failure, they have been performing very well,” he said.
Traxtion, a well-established rail business that supplies locomotives, crews and rail services to South African industry and state-owned railway companies in Africa, has a concession to generate freight traffic for another third-party private operator on the Tazara.
Funded and built by China in the late 1970s, the Tazara — also known as the “Uhuru” or Freedom Railway — has long struggled to be viable.
Now, with private operators attracting new freight, the line is finally earning money from the access fees paid by private operators, Holley said.
SA’s trash turns into treasure for a private locomotive operator in Tanzania
www.timeslive.co.za
MY TAKE
TAZARA operations r not left behind...!