SIA News

Steam in Action Members Update

Firstly, thanks to the hundreds of members who sent us their thoughts, recommendations, and advice. All of it has been acted upon and some of the e-mails that we receive have been forwarded to various officials.

This does highlight the fact however that SIA members should feel absolutely free to communicate directly with officials who might be acting in a manner which we do not believe to be constructive. Very often when we receive a response, like we did from the Ministry of Transport, we have to stand back and allow them to deliver on their promises. The more SIA members communicate with them direct however the more they get the message that this is a big issue and a broadly based issue. In other words, SIA members should in some instances function in their personal capacities or in the capacity of the organisation that they represent. For example, a representative of the Welsh Highland Railway wishing to make a point should be drawing attention to the fact that a large tourist railway in the northern hemisphere takes issue with some of the policies being adopted here. This means that it broadens the front in terms of the number of organisations seeking change or seeking an improvement in policy. We will where possible indicate to individual members who write to us whether we should use their communications in a collective sense, i.e. by putting them together almost as petitions, or whether they should redirect them to a specific official. We are currently busy with that.

We have analysed all the different areas that require attention.

In this regard we have decided to use common Southern African parlance and refer to the major priorities of SIA as the Big Five!

They are as follows:

1. Choo-Tjoe.
2. The National Collection of locomotives… fate of survivors.
3. Historic Buildings. Stop their destruction.
4. Reviving SA Rail Tourism.
5. Saving the Branch Lines.

Here is a brief summary of what we are currently doing in respect of each:

1) Choo-Tjoe.

There is a robust organisation in the George Knysna area who have created a constructive dialogue with the authorities. Obviously time will tell as to whether anyone takes any notice of it and SIA is certainly standing by to provide every assistance. We believe however that we should allow Fraser Howell and his team to consider their options and to come to us as required. I am sure Fraser would love to hear from SIA members and if you would like to join his organisation please refer to Friends of the Choo-Tjoe (W: Welcome to Friends of the Choo-Tjoe, E: howell@telkomsa.net).


2) The National Collection of locomotives.

We have had some very constructive discussions with the Transnet Heritage department in recent weeks. We have received some very satisfactory assurances that policy decisions, which are favourable to the way in which we think this issue should be handled, will shortly be promulgated. New staff are being recruited to carry out the administration which is obviously necessary. In broad terms we believe that they are planning to scrap locomotives that are not considered to be particularly rare and to take the funding and to recycle it (in association with the private sector) to create a safe haven for those locomotives that are considered to be rare. We will shortly publish details of the locomotives that in their wisdom the South African Heritage Resources Agency has decided must be saved, and we will publish a list of those that are going to be sacrificed. SIA does not necessarily agree with this list but we believe that there will be scope for renegotiation at such time as their policy decisions are taken. We expect further developments to unfold within the next 8-weeks or so and we will keep members informed.

3) SA Tourism.

There has been so much pressure on the Minister of Tourism that they are now starting to react. We are in a position where a high level meeting has been promised. This is not a meeting with SIA – it appears to be a meeting that would involve all the groups who seek to see an improvement in the government’s attitude towards Rail Tourism in South Africa. SIA is however pressing very hard for the date of the meeting because we have learnt the hard way that very often this is just a fob off and that the officials who were charged with the job of organising a meeting simply do not bother.

4) Branch lines.

This is a very difficult issue because it involves the unions and essentially revolves around the possibility of privatisation. In the South African political sense privatisation is anathema to the Tri-Apartheid Alliance, namely the ANC, The SA Communist Party and COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions). Notwithstanding the above there are some contradictions. For example, the Franschhoek line has been concessioned, which is supposedly in variance with their policy. Nobody will discuss the issue with us. In addition to the above a reclamation organisation started lifting the Port Shepstone to Harding line because it had been declared no longer necessary and then suddenly in the last few weeks everything was stopped and the line is now back in limbo. The problem with the current state of policy making inertia is that many of the lines have been stolen and so although they might say that a line is being kept intact because it might be needed, the fact is by the time they need it, it is not going to be there. It is very difficult to get anywhere when one draws these matters to an official’s attention because they just throw their hands in the air and say it is not their problem and the Police should be dealing with it. This is a good opportunity to ask members to be very specific and to report to us on the state of any branch line that they might have direct knowledge of.

SIA met with some senior Transnet officials a few years ago and they actually promised us a list of lines that would definitely be concessioned etc. but such a list never materialised. We believe they fell afoul of the unions in this regard. Branch lines remain a very open issue as far as we are concerned.

5) Railway infrastructure, buildings etc.

The now notorious Bonnievale incident where a beautiful and completely intact station was summary flattened into rubble has caused great ripples. An SIA member, Keith Johnstone, who lives in Bonnievale, did a magnificent job of kicking up a fuss to the point where he managed to get a copy of the reversal order (see attachment). This almost indicated that they now feel that should rebuild the station. Once again we urge members to be very protective of quality railway station buildings. We need photographs and we need members to write to their local municipalities, to their local provincial MEC for Tourism, and to the South African Resources Agency pointed out that this building is special and should not be destroyed. Always stress the economic benefits of it being used properly, i.e. job creation, tourism etc.

We will supply contact details upon request.

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We believe that we may have reached the stage where it will be very risky for any official to authorise the destruction of any building because of the amount of opposition that this will immediately spark.

So there you have it…The Big Five!
This will represent where our focus will remain for the foreseeable future. We would appreciate feedback and like Keith at Bonnievale…don’t stay silent.

Regards

Kirsten Rose

Communications Coordinator
Steam in Action
www.steam-in-action.com
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