By: OrePulse

South Africa's rail infrastructure manager is asking the National Treasury for an additional 26 billion rand to rehabilitate the country's freight rail network, with the request set to come before next month's medium-term budget policy statement, on top of 10 billion rand already secured through a state infrastructure funding facility.

The Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM) is the standalone entity Transnet set up to oversee the upkeep and operation of the national rail infrastructure, separately from train operations. In a final network statement made public on Friday, TRIM said the network shows visible deterioration after years of under-investment, theft and vandalism, and acknowledged that Transnet itself does not have the financial capacity to pay for the rehabilitation work needed to keep the network functioning as a trade artery.

"The quantum of investment required to rehabilitate (at a minimum) lines of economic importance by far exceeds Transnet's capacity for funding thresholds, and therefore Trim urgently seeks fiscal support to address these underlying issues, stabilise the rail network, and bolster economic growth," the entity said in the statement.

TRIM said it is also exploring private-sector participation and other funding instruments, but cautioned that those routes would take considerable time to implement. "In the interim, capacity needs to be restored to enable rail reform," it said.

To accelerate the work, TRIM has again turned to Treasury's budget facility for infrastructure (BFI), which has already contributed about R10 billion toward the rehabilitation effort. Applications for the Cape Corridor, worth R8.7 billion, and the Central Corridor, worth R6 billion, were lodged with the National Treasury on July 5, 2026. Bids covering the Northeast Corridor, valued at roughly R5.4 billion, and the Container Corridor, at roughly R6 billion, are being finalised ahead of the funding window that closes October 15, 2026. Together, the four corridor applications make up the additional R26 billion TRIM is pursuing, beyond the R10 billion already awarded.

TRIM cast the funding round as one piece of a larger plan that combines the grants with its own capital budget to work down the maintenance backlog and improve the network's reliability, capacity and durability over time.

The entity, which emerged from the breakup of Transnet Freight Rail's former monopoly to separate infrastructure ownership from train operations and open the network to private operators, has set a target of lifting operating capacity to 250 million tonnes by 2030. Its five-year capital investment plan totals R46.34 billion, comprising R32.7 billion in operating expenditure, R11.9 billion in sustaining capital spending, and R1.7 billion for expansion.

The network carried 167.9 million tonnes of freight in the 2025/26 financial year, an increase from 160.1 million tonnes a year earlier. Still, that figure remained 54.1 million tonnes below the volumes recorded in the 2017/18 fiscal year, reflecting years of strain on the country's export-oriented industries.

TRIM this year also struck deals with 11 private train-operating firms, calling it one of the most significant logistics shifts in a generation. Those agreements are expected to add 24 million tonnes of freight capacity, spread across five corridors focused on coal, manganese, containers, fuel and general freight.

Security remains a persistent obstacle, with the central and container corridors hit hardest. "These corridors experience elevated incidents of cable theft, vandalism and sabotage, driven by systemic vulnerabilities, poor contract management and organised criminal activity," TRIM said. In the third quarter of its 2025/26 financial year, the central corridor — which crosses Gauteng, the Free State and North West provinces and links landlocked Botswana to the Krugersdorp and Vryburg lines via Mahikeng — logged nine theft and vandalism incidents a day.

TRIM also flagged plans for a new rail corridor linking mines in Botswana to South African ports via a route through Eswatini, intended to carry bulk commodities and deepen regional integration. "The project has received support from the Department of Transport to proceed; TRIM and Botswana Railways will undertake bankable feasibility studies starting from 2026/27," the entity said.

The publication of the final network statement formally opens South Africa's rail network to competing operators, a step intended to make the system more efficient, reliable and sustainable over the longer term.