Traxtion confirms R3.4bn rolling stock investment to unlock rail capacity in South Africa
- barboraarendasova
- Dec 17
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 18
A few days ago, Traxtion confirmed it is concluding a R3.4 billion rolling stock investment programme to expand freight capacity and support South Africa’s rail reform agenda. The programme, comprising R1.8 billion in locomotives and R1.6 billion in wagons, is the largest private freight rail investment in South Africa’s history in terms of fleet size and value, with a minimum 60% local content target and 662 direct jobs projected during build and deployment. The added capacity is expected to address about 5% of the national freight rail capacity shortfall.
The investment includes 46 Wabtec diesel-electric locomotives (42 U26C partly modernised locomotives and four C30-8MMI fully modernised locomotives) acquired from KiwiRail in New Zealand. Working with Wabtec, the 42 U26C fleet will be upgraded to C30MEI specification, featuring brand-new, fuel-efficient 7FDL-EFI engines and advanced Brightstar control systems, improving tractive performance and reliability. All locomotive upgrade work will take place at Traxtion’s Rail Services Hub in Rosslyn, anchoring local manufacturing and supplier participation.
The 46 locomotives will be shipped in four tranches between April 2026 and August 2027. Each batch of 10 to 12 locomotives will undergo a four-month modernisation cycle, including engine and control system upgrades, major six-yearly services and full repainting. The first upgraded units will roll out in Q3 2026, marking the historic entry of Traxtion’s trains to South African mainline operations.
“We have structured this programme to maximise South African industrial value-add, such as local assembly, supplier development, and skills transfer, while getting modern locomotives and wagons into service as quickly as possible. The objective is to move more freight by rail, reliably, and at scale. We expect that all the wagons for this project will be domestically manufactured by our existing trusted wagon suppliers”
A proven African growth model
Traxtion operates across 10 African countries and has an existing fleet of more than 50 locomotives on long-term contracts. On regional corridors such as TAZARA and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, third-party access regimes have underpinned material volume gains, with annual rail volumes increasing significantly since their introduction.
“These results are repeatable when the business case is right. South Africa can capture the same benefits, like more tonnage on rail, lower system costs, and stronger industrial spillovers, if we keep momentum on reform, access and the planned infrastructure PSPs,” said Holley.
Image source: traxtion.africa
