Rail Transport in South Africa - History

History

The first track for steam-powered locomotives was a line of about 2 miles (3.2 km) by the Natal Railway Company, linking the town of Durban with Harbour Point, opened on the 26th June 1860. Cape Town had already started building a 45-mile (72 km) line linking Cape Town to Wellington in 1859 but was hampered by delays and could only open the first section of the line to the Eerste River on the 13th of February 1862. However Cape railway construction began a massive expansion, after the formation in 1872 of the Cape Government Railways. Railway lines in other provinces started later, but a national "link-up" was established in 1898, creating a national transport network. This national network was largely completed by 1910. Though railway lines were also being extended outside of South Africa, as far north as Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia), the vision of Cecil John Rhodes, to have a rail system that would run from the "Cape to Cairo", would never materialize.

Upon the merger of four provinces to establish the modern state of South Africa in 1910, the railway lines across the country were also merged. South African Railways and Harbours (SAR & H) was the government agency responsible for, amongst other things, the country's rail system.

Electrification of the railways began in the 1920s with the building of the Colenso Power Station for the Glencoe to Pietermaritzburg route and the introduction of the South African Class 1E.

During the 1980s, the transport industry was reorganized. Instead of being a direct government agency, it was modelled along business lines into a government-owned corporation called Transnet. Transnet Freight Rail (until recently known as Spoornet) is the division of Transnet that runs the rail system. Though there are no plans to end government-ownership of the national rail network, some small portions of the rail system have recently been privatized.