Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Department of Transport (DoT) hopes to reposition rail as the “backbone” of the South African economy by the year 2050 through a R2 trillion investment.
The National Rail Master Plan (NRMP) was approved by Cabinet on 1 April 2026, and released for public consultation on 23 April.
Through the NRMP, the DoT said it aims to revitalise the country’s passenger and freight rail networks in order to significantly boost economic growth.
Speaking at a launch event for the public consultation process, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy outlined the reforms promised by the NRMP.
“Currently, approximately 165 million tonnes of freight is moved on Transnet’s rail network each year,” Creecy said. “Research indicates that market appetite for rail freight is closer to about 280 million tonnes.”
An October 2025 report from The Outlier said approximately six tonnes of freight is transported by road for every one tonne of freight moved by rail in South Africa.
This over-reliance on road freight places immense strain on the country’s road network, leading to issues of congestion, road deterioration and safety concerns.
These inefficiencies reportedly cost the country close to R1 billion per day, which the DoT said is directly responsible for job losses in critical sectors such as mining and agriculture.
As part of the NRMP and its Strategic Plan 2025-2030, the DoT aims to increase annual rail freight volumes to 250 million tonnes by 2030.
The plan also sets out to establish a more efficient commuter rail system, which will reduce household spending on transport and increase rail accessibility for low-income communities.
DoT officials, such as Deputy Director-General for Rail Ngwako Makaepa, have emphasised that the benefits of the NRMP for South Africa far outweigh the high cost.
Creecy said that every R1 million invested in the NRMP will translate to R4.3 million GDP growth for South Africa, creating jobs and benefiting industries such as steel, cement, logistics and engineering.
The DoT launched an online NRMP platform, where stakeholders and interested parties have until 22 July to publicly comment on the plan. The DoT will also host public consultations in all nine of South Africa’s provinces.
Private investment critical for rail revitalisation
Siemens Mobility South Africa CEO Florian Kellenberger
While the DoT set out an ambitious goal with the NRMP, questions surfaced around how exactly the plan would be funded.
In an interview with SABC, Makaepa explained that the plan called for a combination of both public and private investment to meet its targets.
“We know as government, we cannot afford this on our own,” Makaepa said. “We have run a process to talk to our partners about how much they are willing to put on the table.”
“R500 billion has been put down to be able to revive our rail infrastructure. So it’s really a combination of how we can work with the private sector.”
Through the NRMP, the South African government will retain ownership of the rail infrastructure whilst opening the sector to private participation through concessionaires and rolling stock leasing agreements.
Siemens Mobility South Africa CEO Florian Kellenberger said in an interview with Moneyweb that this will be key to sufficiently carrying out the NRMP.
“I think we have to invest in the South African rail business,” Kellenberger said. “We have a lot of things in our backlog, and for a good recovery we now have to go forward and bring the rail into good shape.”
Siemens has provided investment and support to South Africa’s rail network through contracts with Transnet, the Gautrain, and the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa.
This includes the Gauteng re-signalling project, completed in 2023, which introduced significant technology and infrastructure upgrades to over 80 stations in Gauteng.
Kellenberger expressed confidence in the ability of Transnet to effectively open the country’s rail network to private sector participants.
“We can bring in our expertise from the private sector, and we can also use the expertise from a government perspective,” Kellenberger said.
“When we bring this together, I think we can improve and especially speed up the modernisation of our rail infrastructure.”
The real test, Kellenberger said, will be to see how many people actually use the trains for transport and logistics over the next year or two, in order to determine the effectiveness of the country’s rail reforms going forward.
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