Member Benefits

The Southern African Railways Association (SARA) was formed with the initial objective of promoting railway interests through advocacy and lobbying for the levelling of the playing field between road and rail, exchange of information and collaboration among members in order to provide a cost effective seamless railway transport service. Although this objective would seem to apply to railways whose networks are connected, it was SARA’s deliberate position to allow other railway organisations not necessarily connected through their railway network to be part of their membership as there were potential benefits from this interaction. As time progressed it was realised that there were other key stakeholders to the railway delivery service delivery system who could impact on or could be impacted by the railway service delivery process. This being the case, there was a change in the membership drive in order to accommodate these key stakeholders.

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Benefits of the Corridor Concept

The presentation was made by Mr. Stephenson Ngubane, Swaziland Railway Director of Operations and Marketing and also SARA Executive Committee (EXCO) member as follows…

  • SADC Railways have a common gauge (1067mm), therefore rolling stock is interchanged easily without the need to transship cargo.
  • Most Railways have border stations on each side of the border and would place the trains either on their border station or across, it all depends on the arrangement between the neighbouring railways.
  • Each railway would inspect the train they receive (technical inspection and cargo). In some cases this would be joint inspections.

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