Bad news about Ramaphosa’s bullet train promise

President Cyril Ramaphosa did not mention high-speed rail or bullet trains during his 2025 State of the Nation Address, and The Presidency and Department of Transport have been quiet on progress made on the National Rail Masterplan.

In late October 2024, The President reiterated his promise of building a high-speed rail system in South Africa through the country’s National Rail Masterplan, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

MyBroadband asked The Presidency and the Department of Transport if the plan was still on track for completion by the end of the year, but neither had responded by publication.

Late last year, Engineering News reported that the Department of Transport expected to have the interim National Rail Masterplan ready by February 2025, after which an eight-month consultation process would follow.

According to the department’s chief director, Jan-David de Villiers, the final National Rail Masterplan is expected to be delivered by October 2025.

The transport department has contracted SMEC South Africa/Bigen Africa Services JV to develop and maintain the National Rail Masterplan.

Once the three-year contract concludes, a dedicated Department of Transport unit will take over the planning and rollout.

In his weekly letter to the public for the last week of October 2024, Ramaphosa said the Masterplan will cover passenger rail in South Africa’s cities, including rapid rail.

“It will also cover high-speed rail over long distances between centres,” he said.

Before then, The President last mentioned his high-speed rail plans while giving his State of the Nation Address in February 2024.

He said progress was being made on South Africa’s high-speed rail plans, with cabinet approving the framework for a high-speed rail prioritising the Johannesburg to Durban corridor.

“Cabinet approved the prioritisation of the Johannesburg to Durban corridor for a detailed feasibility study, and the Johannesburg-Polokwane to Musina and Johannesburg to Mbombela corridors will be put to the market,” a summary of cabinet’s briefing reads.

On the Johannesburg-Polokwane to Musina route, Travel News reported that Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi had approved an implementation protocol for the corridor in October 2024.

They also approved the process of appointing a joint project manager.

Presenting his State of the Nation Address in 2019, Ramaphosa said he envisioned a South Africa with smart cities linked by high-speed railways or “bullet trains”.

“We should imagine a country where bullet trains pass through Johannesburg as they travel from here to Musina, and they stop in Buffalo City on their way from eThekwini back here,” The President said.

“Has the time not arrived to build a new smart city founded on the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution? I would like to invite South Africans to begin imagining this prospect.”

In May of the following year, Alec Moemi, former director-general at the Department of Transport, said a high-speed rail network was planned for the country.

He said the required framework had already been deployed and implemented, adding that a launch was anticipated for 2025.

In 2022, former Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula published South Africa’s National Rail Policy White Paper, setting out the groundwork for high-speed rail systems in the country.

“The framework will determine the strategic objectives for high-speed rail in the country and determine the criteria to be used in determining and prioritising these corridors,” the document reads.

“Feasibility studies on proposed high-speed services will be conducted by the department guided by the framework.”

If done right, government believes the Johannesburg-Durban corridor could prove particularly lucrative and compete with low-cost air carriers.

The South African government plans to fund the project entirely, but China has indicated that it would potentially be interested in investing.

China has several high-speed passenger trains, some reportedly reaching 600km/h. Travelling between Johannesburg and Durban would take less than an hour at these speeds.