Comments On Sudan Railway Emergency Plan

The plan was prepaid by a group of former railway professionals in the various disciplines of the railway transport. They are known as qualified and had long expertise in the railway. They provided a plan of highly needed emergency that prepares for a future prospect plan. The discussion on the plan was hosted and participated in by the Union of Sudanese Engineers In UK and Ireland.

The plan first is seen as an urgent matter to bring back the railway to normal operating conditions. This is important in the time that the railway with lack of funding for appropriate maintenance was unable to keep its share in the transport market. Its total freight does exceed 11% of road load to and from Port Sudan. Not only that but the most serious setback is that its loads in 2018 are less than 16% of its loads 40 years ago. That time the railway was able to convey around 3m. tons and by 2018 less than 0.5 m tons. If the GDP average growth over the years was taken as 4%, the railway should have conveyed 8 m tons in 2018. This means a lost load of 7.5 m tons. This a setback needs immediate correcting action and this was what the experts pushed foreword for it. The estimation of 8m tons could be doubled if the base of estimation was in the early 1960s with higher loads up to 3.6 m tons and shares in GDP over 7%.

Why the railway lost the 7.5 m tons or even more? The main reasons were summed up in the plan, I would like to stress on the following points some of which are in the preamble of the plan:

1. The government policy

1.1 The government policy towards the transport sector was and still unbalanced between the major sectors of rail and road transport. The rail was favored up to the end of the 1960s as it was historically the available well-established mode of transport. All the development schemes in Sudan such bas dams, agriculture projects, construction etc. were all rail traffic with success. The balance was tilted in the 1970s and roads given the preference. This included building two main road corridors. The eastern corridor joined Khartoum with Port Sudan through Medani, Gedaref, Kassala. The Western corridor joined Khartoum with Port Sudan through Atbara.

1.2 Taxation concessions and custom concessions were availed to trucking companies and individual truck and Lorry owners. These concessions lowered their initial and operating cost and affected the balance between the railway and private sector.

1.3 Transport lost its share in Sudan development plans. The sector was getting up to 34% in national development plans from the first national plan in 1951 up to the 1970s, beyond that little was known to be given and specially in absence of reliable information. Unfortunately resort to selling/privatizing replaced the country national plans.

1.4 Introducing the private sector had its problem as most of the participating companies had no record of experience in rail transport. However, their contribution was around 20% of rail transport. Accounting system might not has been well established in costing the shares of private operators on fixed railway infrastructure. This means the rail was subsidizing the private operators and increased railway losses.

2. Drop in agricultural production had its effect on the railway which was the main carrier of agricultural produce for export and local traffic. This traffic is considered low value traffic suitable for rail reduced rates as compared to road rate with preference to imports with high value and can bare road tariffs.

3. Staff attrition was hard on railway expertise. And apart from its social and political sides, that was most unfortunate for the railway and years of training would be required to upgrade knowledge and experience in many areas in railway working.

4. Successive changes in high ranks without given reasonable care in the selection of suitable replacement of staff in the senior level. This did not help in improving railway output and did not help the management to keep the railway afloat by securing resources for maintenance, avoiding large staff attrition or improve training.

The deterioration of agriculture and the economy in general had its toll on the railway. But the government policy measures had a higher share in the deterioration of the rail system in the country. The authorities should limit policies pertained to staff attrition, placement in senior positions and modal imbalance to help improving the transport sector. The balance in government policies toward to the various transport sectors will improve their competitiveness and guarantee forecasted achievements. Besides. short comings within the railway, should be dealt with and with courage and confidence in the future and this needs a separate round table.

Comments on the plan

The base of the plan on maintenance of tracks, motive power and workshops makes it a particularly good approach towards railway vitalization and future development. The dependence on adding more and more equipment rather than maintaining the available stock would increase the costs and fill the yards with lots of scrap. The exceptionally good attitude in the various plan components is convincing and would facilitate their funding. The effort of the experts should be commended.

Track components of the plan are well documented in concise and cost wise proposal for the activities needed to to bring the tracks to proper working condition. However, I would like to add two components to the track side in the plan,

1. The rehabilitation is put further ahead in the plan but tracks of the closed lines should be part of the emergency plan. The closed Eastern Corridor is part of the system and its coming back is important to complete the network structure.

2. A container depot is part of any large transport business. And to compete for traffic handling and transshipment cost be economized. Wherever the depots would be constructed extension of short lines will be needed to connect with the main lines,

Workshops and fleet

Motive power maintenance without additional purchases of engines, is a reasonable and economic decision. It seems that the railway has no enough motive power and the best decision is to speed up maintenance as new locomotives need time to order and arrive. This should get a priority in the plan

The 2000 wagons part of the plan will contribute around 1.5 million tons with a reasonable turn round and the balance to be covered by maintenance of old stock. But if the wagon turn round performance is to continue as close to 30 days per wagon, then the number of wagons fleet should be revised. Competition with other modes dictates on the railway how much should be prepared. The plan is taken this into account by the addition of the new wagons. Road has a high capacity with lorries up to around 6 millions and heavy trucks ranging between 17 and 10 thousands which indicate the large capacity on roads and noting that a large of road fleets are not accounted for. The estimated capacity of of road fleets is far higher than the capacity of rail wagons. The Railway must take into account the strength of the competitor and market demand in allocating funds for additional capacity,

Operation and utilization of resources

Traffic department and other department as well might have misconception on their roles after the decentralization, and who is responsible of what must be cleared and redefined. I am not opening a debate on decentralizing although it affected past carrier of many. What I like to reach during the implementation of the plan, is that the three operation departments should retain their role on the railway operation as unified network controlled with good advanced transport information system.

Transport information system is the basic carrier of information within the network. After the country was relieved from the economic boycott, ways of obtaining high tech equipment and training are available to the railway. The system will improve channels of command, disseminate information and follow up any moving or idle part of the railway. Let it be part of the plan if we care for reliable and speed of information about what is going on.

Reopening of closed lines must have the priority in every plan of action in the railway unless that closure is on sound economic or commercial grounds, as the case might be.

The Eastern corridor links Port Sudan with most rich agricultural land in the east, the south east and the Gezira area and is income generating line. This is important and is in line with the government drive to boost agriculture in the country. This will bring back the role of the railway in transport of agricultural products.

Containerization is the lifeline of the railway and all studies should include it as part of rail development. The plan should source for income generation and a higher role in the transport market. The transport market is at present is a mainly containerization market. If the railway is willing to compete in import traffic they should consider containerization. The sea trade on containers in 2017 was valued at $12 trillion, and the tonnage increased from 102m. tons in 1980 to 1.83 Billion tons in 2017. It is hopeful to start with one container depot in Khartoum as the largest recipient of containers and a second one in Nyala as hub for traffic to west Africa. If that is agreed on the list of wagons can include container flats. Without containerization, it is expect that road competition will be more difficult to be met by traditional means especially on Port Sudan route. Decreasing handling, saving time and improved safety will lower the cost of transport. More over congestion in the port will be eased by loading on railways directly from the ship and move the train to Khartoum. That will improve train round time and decrease cargo delivery time.

Training of operation and technical staff should be organized as was in the past with advanced countries railways. Training with systems in our region or the South in general will not give us more on what we have. Chances of getting training with railways in UK or other developed countries might be obtained with little or no cost if approached through the government. Let the plan give a place for training and specialized courses rather than long academic studies at least in the short run.

Wagon turn round is the thermometer of railway body health. A one day improvement in its duration would be translated into a major change of output and in real additional tonnage. It is the basic responsibility of the operation staff to follow wagon movement and study every detail that affect the turn round. All the railway departments share in improvement of turn round. The track precautions lowering train speeds should be minimized and curtailed sooner. Speed in sending engines out for running by minimizing preparation time can improve turn round and profit the system. This is especially important during the implementation of the emergency plan. Uncareful and less speedy attention in receiving and dispatching wagons at stations and warehouses is too costly to the railway. Operation staff should have this as their target and the slogan should be ... KEEP IT RUNNING.

Railway stations are mostly in bad shape including Khartoum station. An audit for the stations across the system be followed with a plan to maintain, clean and make the stations environmentally and operationally at best standard. It is important to deter

out of the premises unauthorized persons and roving sellers This also applies to all other premises, offices, workshops, station yards, open railway work grounds etc. With emergency plan let the railway be efficient and presentable and let the railway stations be railway stations not something else.

Dr. sulieman Khalifa