By: OrePulse

Transnet Freight Rail operated an empty 696-wagon train on its Sishen–Saldanha iron ore export line in South Africa, reaching Loop 18 on October 18, 2026, in what the state-owned rail operator described as the longest train ever run on the corridor and a world record for freight rail operations.

The train stretched about 7.6 kilometers along the 861-kilometer line linking Northern Cape ore mines with the export terminal at Saldanha Bay on the west coast. It was made up entirely of empty CR13/14 wagons, hauled by a combination of Class 15E electric and Class 43D diesel-electric locomotives.

The locomotives were connected through a Radio Distributed Power system, which lets units positioned at intervals along the train's length run as one synchronized unit rather than independently. Transnet said this arrangement was central to managing the longitudinal forces that build up across a train of that size during acceleration, braking and travel over varied terrain.

Transnet Freight Rail's Train Design Technology and Operations teams ran the trial together with Transnet Engineering, the Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager, which oversees the corridor's track and signaling infrastructure, and the Railway Safety Regulator, the body responsible for rail safety compliance in South Africa. The company framed the exercise as part of a dynamic train evaluation program meant to pursue both the length record and broader technical learning about operating long trains on the route.

Preparation involved computer modeling and simulation before the run. Specialists traveled with the train throughout the trip to monitor its performance, and Transnet said locomotive data collected along the way would be checked against the simulation models used in planning to gauge how closely the predictions matched actual conditions on the route.

Transnet Freight Rail Chief Executive Russell Baatjies said the real value "lies in the technical knowledge and operational insights gained through this exercise."

Claims to the record for the world's longest freight train have moved between South African and Australian iron ore and coal rail operators at different points over the years. Transnet has not published estimates of how much additional capacity or cost savings a train of this length could add to the Sishen–Saldanha corridor on a continuing basis. Any such gain, if sustained, would depend on factors including the availability of locomotives, loading and unloading capacity at both ends of the line, and ongoing maintenance requirements.

The October 18 run was conducted empty, with the train traveling from Saldanha toward the Northern Cape rather than carrying ore. The Sishen–Saldanha line is Transnet's principal corridor for iron ore exports, moving ore produced in the Northern Cape to ships loading at Saldanha Bay.