THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE REGIONAL ACTION PLAN (RAP) AND THE CORRIDOR CONCEPT OF
OPERATIONS IN SADC RAILWAYS

SOUTHERN AFRICAN RAILWAYS ASSOCIATION SECRETARIAT
HARARE, AUGUST 2003

1. INTRODUCTION

The railway network in Southern Africa spans across eleven countries namely: Angola , Botswana , Congo D R, Malawi , Mozambique , Namibia , South Africa , Swaziland , Tanzania , Zambia , and Zimbabwe . The network has 36,000 route-Km, operates 150,000 freight wagons using 4,000 locomotives and conveys over 200 million tonnes of traffic per annum. The network, with an estimated capacity of 350 million tonnes per annum, constitutes the biggest proportion of the 51,000 route-Km in the whole of the African continent.

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2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE RAP, THECORRIDOR CONCEPT, OF OPERATION AND HARMONISATION OF PRACTICES

The steady decline of rail traffic share in the region in the early 1990's and the inability by governments to continue financing subsidies necessitated the adoption of market-based approaches to railway business. Cost-efficiency and the provision of one-stop seamless services were the catchwords. In the light of these developments, the Chief Executives of all the railways in Southern Africa met in 1993 and agreed on a Regional Action Plan (RAP) the implementation of which was later to be spearheaded by the Southern African Railway Association (SARA) after its formation in 1996. The RAP entailed:

• A redesign of rail services in line with customer requirements and provide the service at reasonable and competitive cost.



• Improve predictability and safety of the rail transport services



• Offer a seamless one-stop service throughout the region irrespective of national borders.



• Promote the sharing of resources, among other interventions, to reduce costs while maximising revenues

These objectives made it imperative to harmonise standards for Technical, Operating, Commercial, Marketing, Costing, and Staff training practices. Harmonised standards and practices were also seen as a contribution to the promotion of trade within the region as well as on the international global market by reducing the contribution of transport to the cost of production by facilitating:

• Common and reciprocal replacement of spare parts on rolling stock



• Fluid exchange of equipment including pooling of resources thereby increasing utilisation that would in turn reduce the levels of asset holding



• Uniform maintenance cycles for equipment therefore allowing for maximum utilisation



• Joint staff training hence economies of scale



• Through-running of locomotives, wagons, and crew across borders for maximum productivity



• Single or joint train inspection at border stations thereby reducing delays



• Comparable cost regimes that would permit uniform rating

While general harmonisation of practices was recognised as key to improved services, the variances in the nature of traffic flows in the different sections of the region, usually from source to destination, entailed that some railways had to work more closely with one another than than with others. It was thus decided that the railways be categorised into corridor groups. A corridor was to consist of railways that formed a route conveying consistently similar flows of traffic. Eleven corridors were identified in the process as shown in the Table 1. Later, the eight regional economic corridors designated by the SADC governments to spearhead development by attracting investment, as illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2, conveniently coincided with the railway corridors, hence ensuring that the railways play a vital role in the trade and economic activities of the region.

Table 1

Figure 1

Development Corridors and SDIs in the SADC Region

3. PROGRESS MADE TOWARDS CONSOLIDATING CORRIDOR OPERATIONS

A number of initiatives have been put in place to consolidate corridor working. A lot more still needs to be done in terms of refinement and implementation. Some of the initiatives are listed below:

Corridor Management Groups (CMG)

Corridor Management Groups (CMGs) were formed in 1998 with the aim coordinating and spearheading implementation of agreed interventions in each corridor. Each CMG is lead by a Corridor Coordinator and is composed of personnel from all disciplines within the Railway (ie. Operations, Safety, Marketing, Technical, Accounting). The CMG is charged with the responsibility of drawing up Corridor Operating Plans and Train Schedules.

Single or Joint Train Inspections at Border Stations.

Contiguous railways now conduct one train inspection only at the border stations, either jointly or the certification by one is accepted by the other. This has significantly cut down delays at interchange points.

Single Consignment Note.

Most corridors are now able to issue a single Consignment note or invoice for the throughout journey.

Revenue collection on each other's behalf

Most corridors have been able to designate one railway to collect revenue on behalf of the rest. This could be the railway originating the traffic or the terminal railway. In some cases a railway is designated to collect revenue on the basis of its ability to and efficiency to do so.

SARA Marketing Policy

The SARA Marketing Policy was developed in 2001 to provide a framework for common marketing strategies and practices on a corridor-by-corridor basis. Through this policy uniform rating per tonne Km has been possible.

Through-running of Locos and crew

Through running of locos and crews is in practice on Ressano Garcia, Goba, and Richards Bay. There is improvement on wagon turn and some Block Trains are being run on Namibian, Limpopo, Ressano Garcia, and Richards Bay.

Performance monitoring and measurement

A system of performance measurement has been put in place. Key elements being measure include speed of delivery in terms of wagon Km per day; length of detention at interchange points; the cost per net tonne Km; and employee productivity in terms of tonne Km per employee.

Schedule International Express Freight Trains (SIEFT)

Terms of reference have been drawn for the establishment of SIEFT for those corridors with the requisite traffic. When in place these are expected to significantly improve on the predictability of service.

4. NEW PERFORMANCE INDICATORS BY RAS AND CORRIDORS

The new reporting format intends to highlight seven indices which were considered to be key to railway success in operational performance: i) Speed of Train transit for the selected international trains while on each railway in terms of Km covered per day ii) Train detention by each railway of the selected trains at the point of taking over the train either from the customer or from another railway at the interchange point. iii) Wagons supplied for the selected commodities compared with wagons ordered iv) Railway market share for the selected commodities v) Accidents per train Km as a safety record for the selected trains vi) Operating cost per net tonne-Km (overall) for each railway vii) Tonne-Km per employee (overall) as a measure employee productivity Measurement for items ( i. to v ) is based on the handling of the two principle commodities considered a priority by the members of each corridor. Items (vi to vii) are based on total traffic including local. The new performance measurement has the following advantages:

• It highlights only a few key indices of performance measured on just key corridor commodities



• Responsibility of data submission to SARA rests with each RA and not with the Corridor Coordinator. In this way accountability is enhanced



• Performance reflects individual RA activities and therefore indicates its specific contribution towards corridor performance



• RAs can determine their own corrective measures