Narrow Gauge In South Africa

September 12, 2009

Paul from South Africa writes:

Some information from my part of the world – in South Africa the entire railroad system is run on narrow gauge. The only piece of standard gauge railroad that has been built is in Saldana Bay, specifically for the movement of goods for shipping – a very big Iron Ore and coal export harbor!

One economical implication of this gauge is that in South Africa most goods are now moved by road, this has caused an unprecedented rise in the cost of goods, especially inland.

After watching a series on American rail services on National Geographic satellite tv I have seen the positives of changing our entire system to Standard gauge.

Outeniqua Choo-Choo

One other piece of information I would like to share is the Outeniqua Choo-Choo (a steam locomotive driven passenger train). This was a tour that ran along the Cape South Coast.

Unfortunately this was stopped when a few years ago very bad flooding and land slides in the Cape damaged the line and the tour was stopped. I will be visiting the Cape soon and hope to find out a bit more about the possibility of re-opening this tour – it may be a long shot but let’s see what happens!