Maputo — The Southern African Railways Association (SARA) held its 29th board meeting in Maputo on Friday, bringing together railway managers from across the southern African region.

The SARA chairperson, Air Commodore M.T. Karakadzai, the General Manager of National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), told reporters the meeting discussed such matters as capacity requirements and standardization.

He recognised that much of the railway infrastructure in the region is run down, partly because of theft and vandalism, partly because of war damage that has not yet been repaired, and partly because of the sheer age of some of the lines.

Karakadzai said the state of the systems varied from country to country. He could not put a figure on how much investment would be required to bring them all up to scratch, but it would certainly run into "billions of dollars".

Individual railway operators could not raise the resources needed, he claimed, "We need to use fora such as SARA for ideas as to how we will face the challenges".

"No railway has enough locomotives, enough wagons, or enough passenger carriages", added Karakadzai. "They are all in short supply. But if we put our resources together we will be able to do a lot better than if each of us acts alone".

SARA also insisted on "harmonization of policies, procedures and philosophies" among the railway operators, in order to "improve operational efficiency, meet customer requirements and reduce the overall costs of doing business".

The railways needed to be competitive (against road haulage, for instance), "otherwise we will go out of business", Karakadzai warned.