Johannesburg — WHEN asked what would be the next big step forward for the commercial aviation industry, a senior design engineer at aircraft manufacturer Airbus replied: "Trains!"

While sarcastic, his answer touched on the enormous challenges facing the aviation industry. While the low-cost model has made air travel more affordable and accessible to a greater portion of the population as well as stimulated new economic activity in the destinations airlines serve, the cost attached to operating an airline has limited those gains.

The high cost of fuel, security issues at airports, myriad taxes, the huge infrastructure needed to support air transport, a web of regulation and environmental pressures all make it virtually impossible to keep fares in check. While new technology can address some of these costs, the advances are slow, the benefits minimal.

Trains, on the other hand, have few of the hindrances of air travel, yet fulfil the same economic function of facilitating trade through the transport of goods and people. And while the cost of rail infrastructure is large, once in place the potential to grow is enormous. Add to this the recent advances in rail technology and on some routes trains can beat aircraft for convenience as well as cost. Just look at the Eurostar, which can take passengers from London to Paris in under two-and-half hours, platform to platform.

So it is no surprise that governments around the world see rail networks and their associated benefits as vital to economic growth.

In France, the high-speed TGV is adding 2000km to its network, linking many more cities around the country. Even Vietnam is the process of signing off plans to build a bullet train network stretching more than 2000km from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, while here in SA, the new Gautrain looks set to be an enormous success when it begins its service later this year.

It is against this background that it is perplexing that Transnet and its passenger counterpart, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), are still unable to provide a comfortable, reliable and regular service between SA's largest cities.

After years of promises Transnet is still bedevilled by the same old inefficiencies. The same goes for Shosholoza Meyl, Prasa's intercity service, which relies on Transnet's infrastructure. While Prasa CEO Lucky Montana appears to have improved the company's operational and financial position, there are still many obstacles to achieving a service South Africans can trust.

While we are not looking for a high-speed link between Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town (wouldn't it be great though?), an intercity service that caters for all pockets and that is regular, reliable and comfortable will pick up where low-cost airlines left off, spreading the benefits to all sectors of the economy.