Transnet's iron ore rail corridor has been hit by yet another derailment – this time in an incident upending 15 wagons in the early hours of Wednesday morning, causing all services on the mainline to be suspended.
The corridor services the iron ore mining industry and stretches 861km from Sishen in the Northern Cape to Saldanha Bay on the country's West Coast
The cause of the derailment is not yet known. Breakdown teams are on site but as of Thursday morning Transnet was unable to indicate when operations might restart.
The derailment is the latest in a string of such incidents, which continue to trouble Transnet's network, negatively impacting operational performance.
The iron ore corridor has been Transnet's better-performing line. The particularly high power voltage which runs through the line is thought to deter cable thieves.
But a cable theft incident on 5 June caused the derailment of 20 wagons and a three-day disruption of operations.
In February, SA's largest iron ore producer, Kumba Iron Ore, adjusted its production outlook for the next three years to reflect lower-than-expected Transnet rail performance.
The miner said this followed from persistent railing challenges faced in 2022, including derailments.
The North Corridor, which mainly moves coal from Mpumalanga to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), has also suffered significant disruptions related to derailments.
Two derailments impacted the line in May, one of which saw 56 wagons derail and involved an operational safety issue.
According to a report by Miningmx, staff had failed to follow safety protocols.
Earlier this week, Thungela Resources – South Africa's largest export coal producer – said its sales for the first half of the year would have been 300 000 tonnes higher were it not for these two incidents.
RBCT statistics showing the reasons behind more than 3 000 train cancellations in 2022 – as was recently presented by the Minerals Council South Africa – stated that derailments accounted for 16% of train cancellations to the terminal last year.
A major incident in November last year saw 97 wagons derailed on the North Corridor and caused over two weeks of disruption and prompted the rail operator to declare its sixth force majeure in just 18 months.
At the time Transnet said it suspected foul play, as the incident occurred soon after company executives received threats of sabotage from local groups seeking business opportunities.
However, a preliminary report by the Railway Safety Regulator indicated that sabotage was unlikely the cause. Rather, the driver may have lost control of the train, which was going too fast.
The regulator has said that Transnet was required to conduct an extensive inspection and that it was up to the parastatal to release the findings of that probe. Transnet Freight Rail, however, insisted that only the regulator can release the findings. The regulator denies this is the case.
Also on Wednesday, a smaller derailment affected operations on the Cape Corridor, which stretches from Warrenton in the northeast of the province to Cape Town.
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