Members
Any railway company or organisation incorporated in Southern Africa owning railway infrastructure and facilities, or providing or operating railway services, is eligible for admission as a Member and shall be admitted to membership upon approval of the Board.
Associate Members
Any organisation or company allied to or a symbiont of the railway industry, organised or incorporated in a country in Southern Africa. may be admitted as an Associate Member upon written application to and with the approval of the Board. However the Board is not obliged to disclose reasons for declining an application.
Special Members
Organisations or groups with special or vested interest in and support for the railway transport industry may be admitted as a Special Member upon written application to and with the approval of the Board.
However the Board is not obligated to discloses reason for declining an application.
Benefits of being a SARA member
- Information sharing
- Power in numbers for lobbying and advocacy
- Scope to provide an integrated seamless railway service
- Access to resources and facilities
- Joint marketing facility
- Increased strength against road competition.
- Scope for standardisation
- Safety and risk management
- Scope to reduce cost of doing business through resource sharing and joint planning.
- Access to donors for regional projects
- Easy access to regional bodies like SADC.
- Advice from the Secretariat to members on various issues.
- Scope to influence
- Preferential treatment from other members
- Networking opportunities.
- Opportunity to get detailed and objective feedback from SARA member customers on service delivery
- Platform to obtain market intelligence pertaining to competitors (road) from member customers
- Opportunity to jointly access and influence railway suppliers who are members of SARA.
- Fostering rapport between railways, its customers and suppliers.
- Networking opportunities
- Access to member customers (marketing opportunity) and suppliers
- Opportunity to influence railway service delivery process (quality of service)
- Ability to influence and promote interests
- Fostering rapport with other members
Activities Performed by SARA
- Coordinating operating and technical practices for the ever increasing number of railway service sproviders, owing largely to the enhanced private sector participation and ensure a cost effective, regionally integrated, seamless and predictable transport service based on, where possible, an inter-modal approach.
- Develop benchmarks service standards and levels of maintenance for infrastructure and equipment to ensure a minimum standard of service delivery by all member railways.
- Raising the awareness of the economic importance of rail and its place within a rationalised transport system.
- Formation of strong, objective and effective rail lobby group, to interact with SADC Secretariat at regional level and SADC member states at a national level with the aim of promoting rail interests and contributing towards the development of national as well as regional transport policies that would ensure equity and fairness for all modes.
- Assist in formulation and implementation of sustainable measures and premises for the levelling of the playing field for all surface modes of transport based on ” the user pays principle” and ” total infrastructure cost recovery regime” .
- Marketing of a positive rail image to clients, policy formulators and the general public.
- Establish and maintain a forum for the exchange and sharing of ideas, expertise, and information; joint problem-solving and maximization of transport efficiency
- Monitoring and informing regarding law enforcement of transport and any other policies affecting railway business in the SADC region.
- Where necessary, undertake training to prescribed regional certification/proficiency level in order to guarantee comparable, minimum performance standards along all rail transport corridors.
- Develop and implement appropriate real time, interactive information systems for informed operational and business decisions, provision of advance customer information and other commercial applications (RSIS, ACIS, Port Tracker, Road Tracker, etc)
- Assist SADC member states in the implementation of the rail provisions in the SADC Protocol on Transport, Communication, and Meteorology (PTCM).
Highlights of SARA Advocacy Activities in recent years
- SARA has undertaken extensive studies on the prevailing road infrastructure financing and road users cost recovery regime, highlighting the SADC governments subsidy to road transport vis a viz the situation as it applies to railway infrastructure.
- SARA has undertaken an extensive assessment of the extent of enforcement of road freight vehicle overloading beyond legislated limits.
- SARA has interacted with all the SADC ministries in-charge of railways highlighting the unfair position regarding non-equitable funding of road and rail infrastructure, continued overloading by road truckers and the continued damage to road pavements by truckers, all of which have contributed to gross surface transport market distortion. SARA is committed to bring to the attention of all stakeholders only those legitimate issues that would promote fair competition.
- SARA continuously enlightens various stakeholders at Regional Transport Fora of all the pertinent issues aimed at the creation of an ideal regulatory environment, advocacy for the railway industry and attainment of surface transport economic efficiency.
- SARA continuously pursues various initiatives aimed at creating a cost effective, regionally integrated seamless and predictable service with special emphasis on corridor planning, management and co-ordination.
- SARA continuously interacts with the various co-operating partners with the objective of undertaking various projects that enhance the viability of railways in the region through their financing.
Are you interested in being a SARA member ?
