Mum for now over increases and loco shortages
ALAN PEAT
DESPITE LOUD complaints through the media about Spoornet’s tariff increases - especially from the grain industry about what they termed “a massive hike” - the railways will not make any of the other proposed rate increases public.
According to spokesman Mike Asefovitz, all the tariffs are individually negotiated and are only released to the railways’ customers.
There’s a similar response to a complaint to FTW by a major mineral exporter that a lack of locomotives was leading to stockpiles of export volumes, and the inevitable loss of orders if landside delivery to the export ports was delayed.
“Spoornet is currently conducting an on-going replacement programme,” said Asefovitz, but he could reveal nothing more on the future plans for bringing the railways’ fleets of wagons and locos up to par.
This, he told FTW, will be revealed at a special conference in May, when the future plans are due to be publicly announced.
“You will be quite pleasantly surprised by what is to be revealed at this meeting,” Asefovitz said.
