{"id":93946,"date":"2025-12-08T19:27:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand"},"modified":"2025-12-08T19:33:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:33:38","slug":"south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Acquires 46 Trains From New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Private rail operator Traxtion will invest R3.4 billion in new rolling stock, the largest private rail investment in South Africa. The program includes 46 diesel-electric locomotives from KiwiRail, New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Traxtion CEO James Holley said the company\u2019s investment in locomotives is a signal of confidence in South Africa\u2019s rail reforms and a major step toward improving the country\u2019s freight logistics capacity.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the upcoming investment, Holley said the company sees a real opportunity emerging as Transnet opens the rail network to private operators.<\/p>\n

Holley added that the company has been deeply involved in the public consultations leading up to South Africa\u2019s rail reforms, and described the changes as long overdue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very involved in the process of public consultation on the implementation of these really groundbreaking reforms for the South African rail sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a big vote of confidence, where we\u2019re saying that we\u2019re happy with the direction of reform, we\u2019re happy with the policies that have been implemented and the enabling legislation\u2014and we\u2019re ready to make an investment off the back of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The locomotives Traxtion is acquiring come from KiwiRail, which is replacing its fleet of Wabtec diesel-electric locomotives.<\/p>\n

Holley said this created a rare chance to secure a large, high-quality fleet suitable for southern Africa\u2019s narrow-gauge rail network.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an opportunity at a time that we felt we had the confidence to invest in South Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Holley explained that this is going to be a fleet with very high reliability and very high capacity.<\/p>\n

After purchasing the locomotives, Traxtion will work with Wabtec\u2014widely regarded as the world\u2019s preeminent diesel-electric locomotive manufacturer\u2014to upgrade the units.<\/p>\n

The result, Holley said, will be \u201ca very high-capacity and high-reliability locomotive that we can deliver to the industry in a very short period of time and at a very cost-effective price.\u201d<\/p>\n

First locomotives will be ready in the nex t 12 months <\/b><\/p>\n

Traxtion CEO James Holley<\/p>\n

He said the investment will enable South Africa to receive true private rail freight services for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s in it for us is to be able to bring to South Africa private rail freight services\u2014and on a very cost-effective basis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On whether South Africa\u2019s infrastructure is ready for the new locomotives, Holley said Traxtion already operates similar technology across the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have about 12 of these locomotives operating in our fleet with pretty much identical technology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we know the technology very, very well. It\u2019s also very similar to the technology that Transnet has in its fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that this familiarity gives the company a very high degree of confidence that it will be successfully rolled out.<\/p>\n

Holley also emphasised the local economic benefits of the deal. \u201cAbout 79% of the total value of this contract is going to be placed with South African companies,\u201d he said, with around 60% of that translating directly into local content.<\/p>\n

He noted that Transnet currently moves between 160 and 165 million tons of freight a year, while demand sits at 250 million tons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re solving a portion of one of the big constraints to economic growth in the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Job creation will also be significant. \u201cOur project in Traxtion is going to create 662 jobs,\u201d Holley said. With a five-times multiplier effect across the upstream and downstream economy, the total impact will be substantially larger.<\/p>\n

The investment aligns with growing regional integration opportunities, noting that similar reforms across neighbouring countries now allow private trains to operate across borders. \u201cThe opportunity for private trains to operate from South Africa into the region exists now in a way that didn\u2019t exist in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For now, the 46 locomotives and 920 wagons are earmarked for South African customers, but Holley is optimistic about future cross-border trade.<\/p>\n

As for timelines, he said the rollout will be fast compared to standard locomotive procurement cycles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first locomotives will be available for service within the next 12 months. To have locomotives in service as soon as this time next year is also a pretty good part of this project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Private rail operator Traxtion will invest R3.4 billion in new rolling stock, the largest private rail investment in South Africa. The program includes 46 diesel-electric locomotives from KiwiRail, New Zealand. Traxtion CEO James Holley said the company\u2019s investment in locomotives is a signal of confidence in South Africa\u2019s rail reforms and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":93945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-93946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nSouth Africa Acquires 46 Trains From New Zealand - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Private rail operator Traxtion will invest R3.4 billion in new rolling stock, the largest private rail investment in Sou ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africa Acquires 46 Trains From New Zealand\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Private rail operator Traxtion will invest R3.4 billion in new rolling stock, the largest private rail investment in Sou ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-08T19:27:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-08T19:33:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765209745.801839.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"South Africa Acquires 46 Trains From New Zealand\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-08T19:27:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-08T19:33:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand\"},\"wordCount\":717,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765209745.801839.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-acquires-46-trains-from-new-zealand\",\"name\":\"South Africa Acquires 46 Trains From New Zealand - 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