The disappearing railway

The fate of the South African railways shows how civilisation can go into reverseand how progress can turn into decline.

*I am writing a book on the Cape to Cairo railway and finding out what is left of this unfinished project. In this first trip I am travelling mostly by road from Cape town to Lusaka and then by train to Dar es Salaam in search of Africa ‘s lost railway which will be the title of the book

The fate of the South African railways shows how civilisation can go into reverse and how progress can turn into decline.

I went to South Africa with one story in mind and found a completely different one. The trip was to research my book on “Cecil Rhodes’’ project to build a railway line all the way through Africa from Cape Town to Cairo. Some parts had already been built before the scheme was put forward and Rhodes’s idea was to complete the remaining sections.

My idea was to follow his route up through Africa as much as possible travelling by rail. Initially I was hopeful that there was a railway service available between Cape Town and Pretoria and possibly even a bit further. The brilliant The Man a Seat 61 website seemed to suggest a weekly train running up the line but the nearer we got to starting the journey, the more it seemed that there were no services. Rumours that there might be trains on the route of the Cape to Cairo route proved unfounded. Rhodes’ vision which at one point lasted a working railway through to what was the Congo in fact now stops at Wellington, barely 30 miles from Cape Town. After that no normal passenger services operate. Cape Town’s suburban rail services are in fact performing quite well and we – I am travelling with my friend Liam - took the train out to Murzenberg on the Southern line to visit the Rhodes Memorial Cottage, the house in which he died. The service was great and we talked to a white woman who had been converted to using line when her car was in the garage and now used it daily. She dismissed the fears that others had expressed about using the railway, saying they were safe and there were staff on every train. In fact, oddly, we had been told to use first class but there is no first class as the trains have through carriages which all connect with each other. That makes them far safer as the patrols can go through the whole train easily. She did say that her friends found it a bit odd that she uses the train.

However, while Cape Town main station is quite busy with local trains, the screen for the long-distance services is blank – permanently so. There are a couple of luxury train services, with prices for a week’s train ride starting at $10,000 or so and every one we asked mentioned these trains. But what happened to the conventional services? The answers vary – they stopped because of COVID and while they were not running, thieves stole the cables and they can’t run. But that cannot be true as the track is clearly in working condition.

We drove up to Wellington, the furthest north reached by the Metro services out of Cape Town, and were told that trains used to operate further up to Worcester but no longer do so. But at Worcester, we found a lovely station well kept by the railway staff employed as security who tend to planters and polish the floors so well you can almost see your reflection in them. The local security staff, who were very angry about the situation which they said had cost many people in Worcester their jobs as they could no longer commute into Cape Town, told us there is no reason why the trains couldn’t continue at least until their station, about 60 miles north of Cape Town. The wires are working and the track is in excellent condition. What’s more, the Rovos and Blue Trains luxury services use this line so why couldn’t the normal trains?’ Indeed. The staff blame corruption at high levels and it is difficult to disagree with them.

But I reckon there is much more to this story. In fact, I write this from Majiesfontein, another hundred miles away from Worcester, which is a one-horse town built around an old railway hotel that still looks like a 19^th century drawing room inside. It owes its creation to the railway as it was a stopping place for refreshments and, later, overnight stays but now no trains, apart from the luxury ones and goods services, go past its doors. Yet, oddly just as I was writing this first a goods train rumbled through but then, towards Cape Town there was an electric loco hauling a diesel one and it had its catenary - the overhead electric equipment – up suggesting that the wires are actually live and there is nothing to stop them being used.

We are off to Pretoria to find out more about what has happened to South Africa’s railway system which is as the guys at Worcester is vital infrastructure and needed not just by its passengers, but by the nation’s economy as a whole. More to come as I have lined up several interviews with people who will hopefully unravel this mystery. Watch this space.

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South Africa