Public consultations on the draft Network Statement Version 4, which will govern access to South Africa's national rail network for the coming two years, have been concluded and it is anticipated that the document will be Gazetted imminently.

Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM) CEO Moshe Motlohi tells Engineering News that the final consultations on the document were concluded with the Department of Transport (DoT) in early September, following a public-comment phase launched in early July.

If accepted, and in line with what was presented to stakeholders during a DoT-arranged public consultation in July 2026, the Gazetted statement will extend the rail access agreement contract period from 10 to 15 years. The change is intended to improve the bankability of the business case for private train operating companies (TOCs) and support longer-term investment in rail operations.

This lengthening of the contract tenure will be extended to the 11 private TOCs that signed rail access agreements with the TRIM in May, with the option to renew such access at the end of their terms remaining intact, provided they can account and present a volume commitment for the extended period.

The first private TOCs are expected to begin pilot operations before the end of 2026, with the others expected to enter the mainline network from 2027 onwards.

The introduction of private TOCs to South Africa’s mainline rail network forms part of reforms aimed at increasing rail volumes to 250-million tons by 2030.

In 2025/26, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), which has hitherto been a monopoly operator, increased its volumes by 4.9% to 167.9-million tons, short of its 180-million-ton target.

Motlohi says several other changes will also be introduced under the new statement, including the formal introduction of an ‘Ad hoc methodology’, whereby rail slots will be released for shorter periods when network capacity becomes available because of “unforeseen circumstances”.

These ad-hoc allocations will be available to the existing 12 operators, including TFR, as well as new entrants.

Some additional slots will also be released under Network Statement Version 4, but Motlohi says that the prevailing network constraints will result in fewer new slots being released than was the case in the previous statement.

“Some new slots will become available, but we are nearing saturation given the state of the network.

“We, therefore, want to use the coming two years to focus more on improving the network, which will enable us to release more capacity,” he tells Engineering News, while confirming that the statement will now be updated every second year rather than every year as initially envisaged.

Motlohi says TRIM is gearing up to invest some R9.2-billion yearly over the coming five years on maintenance and upgrading, describing improving the state of the network and reducing theft and vandalism as “burning platforms”.

In 2025/26, TRIM and TFR reported 5 657 incidents of theft and vandalism, which represented the lion’s share of all security incidents across the larger Transnet group.

Transnet reported losses of R1.7-billion as a result of 5 870 incidents across its rail, ports, pipelines and property businesses.

To combat these “security attacks”, Motlohi reports that community-engagement efforts have been stepped up in a bid to identify and arrest culprits, alongside the introduction of new technologies to reduce the risk of further attacks.