An Investigation into the Causes of Failures in Railway Infrastructure at Transnet Freight Rail - A Case of the Steel and Cement Business Unit

Mpho Ramuhulu () and Ngonidzashe Chiranga ()

International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Policy, 2018, vol. 7, issue 1, 8-26

Abstract: The purpose of the study was to investigate the causes of railway infrastructure failures in the case of Transnet Freight Rail’s Steel and Cement business unit and suggest methods to increase the reliability of the business unit’s railway infrastructure and recommend policies to increase the reliability of the railway infrastructure., A reliable railway infrastructure will grow the market share of the business unit, reduce operating costs, grow the economy of South Africa, create employment, and increase the revenue of the business unit. A quantitative approach was used to conduct the research and questionnaires were distributed to a population of 1048 employees that work for the business unit with the participants chosen based on their railway infrastructure experience and railway exposure. The study revealed that extreme weather conditions, ageing railway infrastructure, vegetation, lack of maintenance, other Transnet departments, poor railway infrastructure maintenance, theft and vandalism, are the major causes of railway infrastructure failures in the business unit. The research made a number of recommendations including that the business unit develop a lifecycle management program for its ageing infrastructure and introduce skills transfer programs in place. Railway maintenance was suggested as being a key performance measure.

Keywords: Maintenance; Railway infrastructure; Weather conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://archive.conscientiabeam.com/index.php/26/article/view/2055/2952 (application/pdf)
https://archive.conscientiabeam.com/index.php/26/article/view/2055/5141 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pkp:ijsdwp:v:7:y:2018:i:1:p:8-26:id:2055

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Policy from Conscientia Beam
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dim Michael ().