Transport in South Africa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 Roads
2 Railways
3 Airport
4 Water
5 Pipelines
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Roads

Main article: National Roads in South Africa

Main article: Regional Route (South Africa)

Approximately ten thousand people die on roads in South Africa yearly^[1].

The national speed limit is 50 or 60 km/h in residential areas, 100 km/h on motorways, and 120 km/h on national roads/freeways.

In 1996 the country had a total of 358,596 km of highways, 59,753 km (including 1,927 km of expressways) of which seventeen percent was paved.

[edit] Railways

Main article: Rail transport in South Africa

In 2000, South Africa had a total of 20,384 km of rail transport, all of it narrow gauge. 20,070 km was 1.067 m gauge (9,090 km of that electrified), with the remaining 314 km 0.610 m gauge. The operation of the country's rail systems is accomplished by Transnet subsidiaries Spoornet, Shosholoza Meyl, Metrorail, Transwerk, Protekon et al.

A feasibility study is to be conducted into the construction of a 720 km standard gauge line from Johannesburg to Durban for double-stack container trains^[2].

Links exist to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. Railways linking Mozambique are under repair.

[edit] Airport

Main article: :Category:Airports in South Africa

There were an estimated 727 airports in 2002.

Runway	<914 m	914/1 523 m	1 524/2 437 m	2 438/3 047 m	>3 047 m	Total
Paved	11	67	50	5	10	143
Unpaved	252	298	34			584

[edit] Water

Main article: :Category:Water transport in South Africa

South Africa's major ports and harbours are Cape Town, Durban, East London, Mossel Bay, Port Elizabeth, Richards Bay, and Saldanha. In 2006 the new port is to open: Ngqura, at Ciega, which is 20 km northeast of Port Elizabeth. The administration and operation of the country's port facilities is done by two subsidiaries of Transnet, the National Ports Authority and South African Port Operations (SAPO).

In 2002, the merchant marine consisted of a total of eight ships of 1,000 GRT or over, totaling 271,650 GRT/268,604 DWT. Six were container ships, and two were petroleum tankers (including foreign-owned ships registered as a flag of convenience: Denmark: 3, Netherlands: 1).

[edit] Pipelines

There are 931 km of crude oil pipeline transport, 1,748 km for other petroleum products, and 322 km for natural gas. Petronet, a subsidiary of Transnet, which in turn is majority owned by the government, is prinicipally responsible for the operation of South Africa's pipelines.