Please inform your representative in Parliament.

 

2025-10-12 REVIEW TFR G-K CONCESSION John Stegmann

Ever since the August 2006 storm disrupted the rail service on the

branch line from George to Knysna, built c1924 as a welcome

alternative to the earlier meandering muddy Six Passes inland

oxwagon route, two organisations have competed vigorously for the

future use of the 67 km rail corridor administered by Transnet

Freight Rail (TFR). TFR is about to award a 25-year concession to

the wrong organisation. This is an alarming situation that calls for an

immediate review the TFR award in the interests of the public and

the country.

One of organisations is The Friends of he Choo-Tjoe (Friends), consisting of

well-heeled steam enthusiasts with connections in the railroad fraternity, who

see the old steam train as the tourism icon that it once was and vow to revive

it in the belief that it could attract tourism to this region.

The other is The Garden Route Cycleway Association (GRCA), consisting of

a group of cyclists acutely aware of the pressing need to retard the existential

threat of global warming, and do so by promoting the extensive use of muchneeded

non-motorised transportation (NMT) facilities - the provision of carfree

continuous, direct, dedicated facilities ideal for cycling, jogging and

walking in clean air.

As such, this proclaimed permanent public way, that links the centre of

George to the centre of Knysna via towns in-between as it weaves through

spectacular scenery, is possibly this country’s most precious gem that

belongs to all, must to be preserved and its benefits for the region and the

country maximised.

With years of first-hand experience in the extreme difficulties encountered

when attempting to create such facilities in existing urban fabric the GRCA is

fully aware of it's true value and is determined to have it serve as a prime

example of NMT, available to everyone, ideally free to individuals, and

administered as an NGO.

GRCA’s view of reality is that the steam train is polluting, inefficient, slow and

expensive to operate. The replacement of steam commenced seventy-five

years ago. This one had already lost its appeal in 2006 as it needed a R10m

subsidy to survive when the line was maintained for it by TFR. The branch

line was under-utilised as it made the trip one way in the morning and

returning in the afternoon. A diesel-electric loco was needed when the fire

hazard was high. The branch line itself had lost freight business and ran at a

loss. We’ve managed without the rail service for two decades and rail cannot

regain a short freight service lost to road transport.

The steam train therefore has little to offer the region beyond the fact that one

can occasionally say, ‘Look, there goes the Choo-Tjoe!’. It is not what the

region or the country needs, it appears likely to fail and its return would be a

tragic waste of the region’s most precious public asset that has such great

potential if dedicated to NMT. When the time comes for a passenger rail

service between George and Knysna a new high-speed alignment will be

required.

NMT’s obvious and tangible benefits for the region are that of a much-needed

example of the health, mobility, economic and environmental benefits that will

accrue for decades to come to tens of thousands of individuals who use it

daily, together with the potential it has for extension to link George with

Gqeberha, spreading its benefits further afield and encouraging the provision

of NMT facilities elsewhere in the country.

PROOF

Some will recall that during the 1970s bicycle use in South Africa’s urban

areas fell to a level where cycling barely existed. The real and perceived

hazards for children using a road system dedicated to large fast-moving and

polluting road traffic was such that, for valid reasons of safety, adults who had

cycled to school opted to take their children to school by car. Adults who

wished to cycle were themselves deterred. Bicycles, being crude and

inexpensive, were regarded as symbols of poverty or eccentricity.

Through the efforts of a few cyclists the situation was brought to the attention

of Cape Town’s City Council where permission was gained to demonstrate

their contention that given the exclusive car-free use of some of the City’s

most scenic roads cyclists would appear.

That idea was widely ridiculed and the message difficult to promote in an era

before the Internet or cellphones and in the very early days of TV here. None

of Cape Town’s three daily newspapers would risk backing it. When one

eventually did, it nervously regarded this as a high-risk decision.

To everyone’s surprise the first Argus Cycle Tour in 1978 was an immediate

success. It was established as an annual event that within a few years

became the World’s biggest annual bicycle event in terms of the number or

participants, meaning that the organisers soon had to limit the number of

riders it could admit.

For decades the Cycletour has been the City’s greatest annual tourism week,

prompting the City to adopt it to secure its future as an annual event. Added

to the tourism value is an array of supporting commercial enterprises as well

as the fact the event supports the City’s major charities.

Similar events have been created elsewhere in this country where cycling is

experiencing an unprecedented revival. Because on-road urban cycling is

dangerous off-road rural cycling has flourished. GRCA is convinced that the

George-Knysna permeant public way’s urban accessibly and convenience -

with a theme recalling the early days of steam - would be an even more

amazing South African success story making it unquestionably the right

option to choose.

URGENT CALL FOR A REVIEW OF THE TFR CONCESSION AWARD

Because trains require long distances to stop and cannot swerve, an

important public safety ordinance prohibits the public from entering a rail

reserve that must be fenced off. The choice is between the two proposals.

And because TFR is about to conduct a ceremonial public celebration of the

signing of the award to the Friends there is a measure of urgency to invoking

a halt. No matter, either way, the review is essential.

TFR, as a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) is subservient to the General

assembly (Parliament) as the highest authority charged with protecting public

assets, precisely such as this proclaimed public way entrusted to TFR. The

GA was therefore petitioned to intervene and claimed to be unable to interfere

in TFR’s legal tender process.

An investigation into procedures followed by TFR and the GA for their

decisions will reveal failures to give full and proper attention to a comparison

of the merits of each option. Each authority used a technical legal aspect (that

only the Fiends met the bid cut-off date stipulation) to allow TFR’s choice to

prevail.

Neither TFR nor the GA makes mention having given consideration to the

merits of each option. In view of the far-reaching consequences of this

decision a review is fully justified.

A transparent review of the comparative merits will quickly expose the

remarkable difference between them, favouring NMT, in terms of their

potential for extensive and enduring public and national benefit.