Transport master plan may cost R750bn

A TRANSPORT master plan costing R750bn, which includes linking Johannesburg to Durban and Polokwane via rapid train networks, was presented to Parliament by the Department of Transport yesterday.

The plan’s project manager, Lanfranc Situma, told the portfolio committee for transport that the department needed urgent approval from MPs so that the Cabinet-initiated National Transport Master Plan (Natmap) could “get moving”.

“We are not saying we are going to build a train tomorrow. We are saying we want to have to prepare a project document that will be able complete for funding,” Situma said.

Natmap transport planning consultant Paul Lombard recommended to the committee that studies be done on whether it was feasible to extend the Gautrain project to the Durban-Johannesburg and Pretoria-Polokwane lines. “We must ask if we can afford it and how affordable it will be to passengers and the government,” Lombard said.

He recommended the immediate institution of a rail infrastructure-owning entity, similar to the Airports Company SA, that would “eventually absorb” SA’s entire network and “allow existing freight and passenger agencies to operate on the network”.

The plan, which includes expanding the port of Saldanha, doubling the size of the Huguenot Tunnel outside Paarl, and expanding the port of Cape Town as other vital projects, would cost roughly R750bn should it be launched today, financial project manager Themba September said.

He said part of the plan was to form partnerships with the private sector to help fund the project and lower the burden to taxpayers. “Overall, between now and 2050, the cost of the project will be around R750bn.

“We would hope to fund a large part of the project through private-public partnerships. We would like to find the right ratio of ownership between the private and public sector.”

September could not speculate on a start date for the project, but said it was important that SA “wasn’t caught napping. Someone at some point has to make a hard, cold decision on this”.

Situma told the MPs SA could qualify for foreign funding for the rail project as it had voluntarily agreed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 46%. “If you build a railway or a train, you are going to be cutting down the emissions from the road because there will be less vehicles emitting carbon on the roads. “Because of that, we will qualify for funding which other people are getting. That money is readily available.”

The Natmap was initiated in 2007 to establish a multimodal transportation system to meet SA’s needs up to 2050. Sapa