Posted on 10 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Four Chinese-built diesel-electric locomotives acquired by TransNamib in 2007 are to be dismantled and sold as spare parts. Managing director Titus Haimbili explained this to deputy minister for works, transport and communications Samuel Ankama and deputy secretary of state Balbina Pienaar during a recent visit to company premises in Windhoek. “We have four Chinese locomotives [...] [...more]
Posted on 25 July 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
From an article in The Namibian by Jana-Mari Smith “TransNamib is determined to overhaul its image as a battling state-owned enterprise and to revive the ‘glory days’ of the railways in Namibia. Senior managers of TransNamib met with high-ranking officials from the ministry of works and transport and members of the TransNamib Board to clear [...] [...more]
Posted on 01 June 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Struggling as it is with serious financial problems, TransNamib – the national railway of Namibia – was said to be losing N$500 000 every day as a result of the Transnet wage strike in South Africa. This strike had a paralysing impact on building and mining, with supplies of cement and ammonia brought in from [...] [...more]
Posted on 18 May 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Namibia’s Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) has warned that the nearly N$84 million which finance minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila earmarked in her 2010-11 Budget to upgrade railway infrastructure is “meagre” and won’t improve efficiency. According to the IPPR, the one-off subsidy to help TransNamib fund its capital projects is a “meagre amount when compared to [...] [...more]
Posted on 13 April 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
From an article in “New Era”, published in Windhoek: “Rail was the predominant carrier of freight in Namibia for most of the 20th century until the 1980s when the transport sector started to be liberalised. This brought about a departure from commercial regulation that favoured the advancement of road transport. Rail tonnage started to decline [...] [...more]
Posted on 06 April 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
From an article in “New Era”, published in Windhoek: “From the humble beginnings of Namibia’s railway network 112 years ago, it now spans the entire country – from north to south, east to west. In line with Government’s Vision 2030, it is expanding to connect Namibia with its neighbours in addition to the historic railway [...] [...more]
Posted on 15 March 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
TransNamib, Namibia’s national railway, has awarded a contract worth about N$7 million to Namibia Road Products (NRP) for the construction of a railway siding and on-site permanent way at the “multi-billion-dollar” Ohorongo Cement factory near Otavi. According to New Era, published in Windhoek, the German-owned factory entered an agreement with TransNamib in December 2009, in [...] [...more]
Posted on 01 March 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
According to an application to the High Court in Windhoek, the Shetu Trading company wants a tender awarded to a Chinese company to be reviewed or set aside. Executive director of Shetu Trading Anna Mbundu alleges that the Namibian cabinet, in a July 2009 resolution, resolved to go along with a Chinese government agreement to [...] [...more]
Posted on 16 October 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
A pre-feasibility study for the proposed new Trans-Kalahari railway from Botswana to the Namibian coast has begun, after three years of preliminary planning. Expected to take twelve months, the work is being funded by a N$3.4m ($US463,000) grant from the World Bank and N$329,000 ($US44,744) each from the two countries. [...more]
Posted on 09 October 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
Following a month in Namibia, Pierre de Wet reports enthusiastically on a number of well-kept stations: “Down south at Aus on the Lüderitz line there is a large depot with concrete sleepers in neat stacks including those fancy see-through ones that Railways Africa published some time ago. Brave people resuscitating this very difficult line. Apart [...] [...more]
Posted on 02 October 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
Responding to a question by Arnold Tjihuiko in Namibia’s parliament on 24 September, works and transport minister Helmut Angula said payments for the four locomotives bought from China in 2004 were accompanied by letters of credit “through the banking systems directly to the supplier of the goods in China. No local agent or middleman was [...] [...more]
Posted on 27 July 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
According to Namibian works and transport minister Helmut Angula, replying to a question in parliament, four Chinese locomotives costing about N$36 million which arrived in Namibia five years ago suffered 265 failures between October 2004 and June 2007. After this they were withdrawn from service. “This translated into an availability rate of less than 40%,” [...] [...more]
