Spoornet

Infobox_Company
company_name = TRANSNET FREIGHT RAIL
company_
company_type = Railway Operator, commercialised organisation with the State as its sole shareholder
company_slogan =
foundation = 1910
location = flagicon|RSA Johannesburg
key_people = Mr Siyabonga Gama, CEO
Mr Peter Fearnhead, Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Nick Thomson, Chief Financial Officer, Mr Percival Mosweu, General Manager - Technical Department
num_employees = ~ 25,000
revenue = ~ R14 bn 2006
industry = Train transport
products = Freight transport service

homepage = [http://www.spoornet.co.za/ http://www.spoornet.co.za/] infobox rail
railroad_name=Transnet Freight Rail
logo_filename=
logo_size=300
marks=
locale=Southern Africa
start_year=1910
end_year=present
gauge=1067 mm
hq_city=Johannesburg

Among Transnet's railway service divisions are: Protekon, a transport infrastructure design company; Transnet Rail Engineering (formerly Transwerk, which provides railway engineering services; and Transnet Freight Rail, formerly called Spoornet. Formerly part of South African Railways and Harbours, Transnet Freight Rail is the South African railway system. This state-controlled organisation employed hundreds of thousands of people for decades from the first half of the 20th century and was widely referred to by the initials SAR&H (its English form, while the Afrikaans equivalent was SAS&H).

Operations

Transnet Freight Rail is a freight logistics and passenger transport railway. It is the largest freight hauler in Africa. The company is comprised of several different businesses:
* General Freight Bus - Spoornet's largest division; handles over 50% of its freight;
* COAL Export Line, also known as "Black Gold", serving coal customers on the Mpumalanga - Richards Bay line; second largest coal railway in the world;
* Ore Export Line - dedicated to iron ore transport on the Sishen to Saldanha line;
* Luxrail - The operation of the Blue Train, which is designed as a five-star hotel on wheels;

Links to neighboring countries

Spoornet is well linked to the neighboring countries, namely
* at Ressano Garcia with Mozambique,
* at Golela to Swazi Rail of Swaziland
* at Musina/Beitbridge to the National Railways of Zimbabwe, and the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR),
* at Ottoshoop to the Botswana Railways
* near Upington to TransNamib of NamibiaThere is also a link to Maseru in Lesotho.

Ongoing projects

*Maputo Corridor Transnet Freight Rail is developing a plan with the IDC to transport magnetite from Phalaborwa to Maputo as feedstock for a proposed steel plant in Maputo.

External links

* [http://www.spoornet.co.za Official web site]
* [http://www.transnet.co.za/ Transnet]
* [http://www.transnet.co.za/AR_2006/ops_spoornet.html Spoornet Operational Report at Transnet]
* [http://www.friendsoftherail.com/ Friends of the Rail]
* [http://www.mbendi.co.za/orgs/cd11.htm MBendi Spoornet information page/article]