Do you ever hear of anyone saying a road makes a profit? Decades before SANRAL came into being, SA built wonderful highways and freeways. Nobody ever asked if they made a profit.
Why is it the first question asked about rail? In old SAR days, goods trains were seen as profitable, passenger as a fruitless loss. Yet, one could reach anywhere in SA by train and its RMT (Road Motor Transport) partner.
The current national government appears to think that minibus taxis are adequate for tourism. They are wrong. Do you want to crush yourself into one, and travel through baking Karoo heat without aircon? Taxi drivers don’t like aircon, nor do their passengers. Next time you are at a Jhb taxi rank (take bodyguards, and) try asking how to get to Paternoster, Petrusville or Pofadder. Good luck with those. Having minded your "P"s, you may have better luck with "Q"s: Quthing, Queenstown or Qacha’s Nek. What does a Euro or BRICS touris do? S/he will get no luckier in a travel bureau. Minibus taxis are for brave backpacker adventurers.
WC government wants to take over commuter rail in Cape Town. We hope they will do the same for the Garden Route. It is not just a matter of getting people to work.
In a recent video, Wayne Duvenage said:
“Australia … gets more tourists than us. And they’ve got a rock and a kangaroo and a barrier reef, quite frankly, and they are on the end of the world. It takes ages to fly there from Europe … We’ve got diversity, flora, fauna, beauty, people, … everything going for us. And [yet] we can’t outpunch Australia”.
That is infuriating. Many years ago, I put a young man on a coach in PE. He was on holiday in SA. I told him
“Before you go back to England, just see Cape Town”
He did not return to England for more than a decade.
“One amazing postcard view after another” is how he described the coach trip through the Garden Route. In many places, the train has better views than the road. Rovos Rail, for many years, featured a day trip on the Tjoe-Choo in their package. Tourists can’t get enough of the Garden Route. Does the DA know what a tourism jewel we have on the Garden Route?
Provincial government, given the use case of emergency vehicles discussed in Part One, should look at repairing the line: emergency vehicles are a good starting use case, but why not reach full potential? Run trains to get learners to school, relieve the N2, and bring in tourists.
More importantly than just the George - Knysna section, there is Mossel Bay and beyond. Connecting Caledon with Swellendam will cut 65 km from the route, allowing George to Cape Town in six hours, beating minibus taxis. Rail will never compete with a one hour flight on trip time. On fares, no airline can compete. The cheapest one way George - CT flights start at around R800. Most flights are around R4000.
Even without connecting Caledon and Swellendam, and using the existing route, George to Worcester is a 5 hour trip in a train like Queensland Rail’s Spirit of the Outback. That train runs on Cape Gauge, like ours, and is optimised for higher speed travel than our current low-tech clanking main line trains. On straight sections in Queensland, it operates at up to 160 kph. It would not do that on our existing track from Mossel Bay to Worcester, but would outstrip road vehicles at 130 kph, and average 78 kph. Currently, PRASA rate to East London is R 0.30c per km in sitter trains. This is how the timetable would look for a comfortable, climate-controlled train departing, George at 07h00, assuming a fare of R 0.48c per km:
| Station | ETD/ETA | Fare R |
|---|---|---|
| Mossel Bay | 07:39 | 24.72 |
| Voorbaai | 07:43 | 27.81 |
| Albertinia | 09:05 | 54.07 |
| Riversdale | 09:34 | 72.61 |
| Heidelberg | 10.03 | 89.61 |
| Swellendam | 10:56 | 122.82 |
| Ashton | 11:48 | 155.27 |
| Robertson | 12:02 | 164.54 |
| Worcester | 12:39 | 187.71 |
| Cape Town | 14:54 | 271.71 |
The fare could comfortably be doubled, and still beat minibus taxis against price (R 470 - R 650) but not on exactly the same route. Minibuses from George would not go through Worcester. Connecting Caledon and Swellendam will cut an hour from the current Worcester route. Tourists would be treated to the view over Cape Town descending Sir Lowrey’s Pass.
Would you prefer to glide along in a train, or lurch along in pothole-dodging minibust taxi? Even a coach can’t match a train for comfort, and nothing matches rail for safety. Once our trains are quicker than buses, you know what will happen.