Transnet Freight Rail iron ore volumes rise as Sishen–Saldanha line remains below capacity

Transnet Freight Rail
iron ore volumes rise as Sishen–Saldanha line remains below capacity

Larry Claasen

TRANSNET Freight Rail’s volumes on its line connecting Sishen in the Northern Cape to Saldanha on the Western Cape coast were up but its performance remained significantly below design capacity.

The 861km rail line is one of the two main heavy-haulage routes in South Africa and its turnaround is critical to the rail and port monopoly’s success.

Though iron ore volume increased 4,23% to 52,75 million tons year-on-year for the 12 months to end March 2026, it was still well below the line’s annual capacity of 60 million tons. The iron ore line cycle time improved to 91 hours from the 98,28 hours, but remained above the target of 88,8 hours.

In its annual report Transnet Rail said this under performance was primarily due to locomotive and wagon availability constraints, rail network reliability challenges and port-related disruptions.

These issues had a marked impact on its operations. “Operational variability manifested in train cancellations, late departures, and extended cycle times, and continued to reduce throughput predictability,” it said.

It noted, however, there was improved operational stability, which was evident in the third and fourth quarters and was by a “well-executed October 2025 shutdown, scenario-based planning, and heightened leadership focus.”

Locomotive and wagon availability remain the key constraint

Even so, locomotive and wagon availability continues to weigh on Transnet as a whole.

Transnet Engineering, which maintains the group’s locomotive and wagon fleet, said its own performance was “significantly impacted by structural constraints.”

It said availability of critical materials, inadequate original equipment manufacturer (OEM) support for specific fleets, and capacity limitations within rolling stock maintenance affected its operations.

Transnet Engineering’s maintenance issues have had a far reaching impact. “These factors contributed to a decline in locomotive reliability, increased traction-related delays, train cancellations, and associated volume losses across key corridors, notably the North, Ore, and Northeast Corridors.”

Transnet Engineering misses most RSM KPIs as maintenance delays bite

It said its Rolling Stock Maintenance (RSM) Department failed to achieve most of its KPIs in the 2025/26 financial year, resulting in delays and deferments of planned maintenance activities and component change-out programmes.

One way Transnet Engineering is trying to address its maintenance issues on the Sishen / Saldanha line is to bring in more personnel. “To mitigate the labour shortfall, technical employees were permanently redeployed from other areas to support maintenance

execution.”

It added that while ongoing recruitment was underway, employees were temporarily seconded as an interim measure, and that focused interventions were also being implemented to address ongoing material shortages and improve maintenance turnaround times.

Transnet Engineering said it was addressing its operational issues by securing a three-year rolling stock maintenance budget for long-term planning with Transnet Freight Rail .

It is also implementing and monitoring the multi-year master services agreement and service level agreements to meet and exceed rolling stock availability and reliability.

A revised and approved Transnet Engineering / Transnet Freight Rail business model has been implemented. Its goal is to improve integration from planning, budgeting and execution to support the volume ramp-up.

Transnet Freight Rail returns 216 locomotives to service; CRRC repair project continues

For its part Transnet Freight Rail said it was making operational improvements. It returned 216 long-standing locomotives back into service since the inception of the master service level agreement implementation.

It also said one of 48 units under rehabilitation (CRRC fleet repair project) was delivered, with the second locomotive undergoing static testing and handover dynamic commissioning.

Manganese volumes transported from Sishen to Saldanha increased by 11,20%, reaching 5,83 million tons.