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2010-9-1 23:04
China’s biggest construction company has said it is in talks about building railways in South Africa, in a sign the continent’s biggest economy could be moving towards constructing the first dedicated high-speed rail line in sub-Saharan Africa.
China Railway Group said it had had “early stage contact” with South African companies about undertaking rail projects there. South Africa’s Standard Bank, which is 20 per cent owned by the Industrialand Commercial Bank of China, subsequently confirmed it had signed a memorandum of understanding with China Railway to finance projects in the country. Both parties stressed it was so far undecided which rail projects would be covered by any deal. However, the South African press had reported ahead of the present visit to China by Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president, that an agreement to build a $30bn high-speed line between Johannesburg and Durban could be among the deals signed. A high-speed rail line linking Johannesburg, with a population of 5m, and Durban, home tro 3m people, could take pressure off the crowded road between the two cities. It could also eliminate some of the scores of daily flights linking the two centres. Sibusiso Ndebele, transport minister, identified a high-speed rail link between the two cities as a priority in April. There is widespread scepticism in South Africa about whether there are enough people interested to justify building a line. The only African country previously to commit to a high-speed line is Morocco, in North Africa. It said this year it had started work on a project to link the port city of Tangier to Casablanca, 750km away, aiming to complete work by 2015. Most business people in South Africa believe the country faces far more pressing problems to improve the handling of high volumes of bulk commodities produced by its mining industries. Millions of poor township residents also currently face long, gruelling journeys to work in big cities. Much of the country’s road network is inadequate to deal with traffic levels. Mr Ndebele has said a Johannesburg to Durban link would be viable only if it also carried freight – unlike most high-speed railways worldwide, which are dedicated to passenger traffic. The first phase of South Africa’s only existing fast passenger line, the Gautrain project linking central Johannesburg to Pretoria and the region’s airport, opened in June and is due to be completed next year. Trains on the route reach speeds of 160km per hour, far slower than the 300km/h standard on dedicated high-speed lines. Most of South Africa’s long-distance passenger rail services were halted earlier this month because of a dispute between the service operator and Transnet, the network owner. 中国最大的建筑公司表示，正就在南非建设铁路进行商谈，这一迹象表明，非洲最大经济体可能将建造撒哈拉以南非洲地区的第一条专用高速铁路。
中国中铁(China Railway Group)称，已与南非企业就承接该国铁路项目进行了“早期接触”。南非的标准银行(Standard Bank)随后证实，已与中铁签署一项有关为该国项目融资的谅解备忘录。中国工商银行(ICBC)持有标准银行20%股份。 双方都强调，目前尚未敲定任何交易或其将覆盖哪些铁路项目。 不过，在南非总统雅各布?祖马(Jacob Zuma)本次访华前，南非报刊曾报道称，两国有望签署的协议将包括在约翰内斯堡和德班之间建设一条高速铁路，项目投资额将达到300亿美元。 在500万人口的约翰内斯堡和300万人口的德班之间建设一条高速铁路，有望减轻两个城市间道路拥堵的压力，还可能取消这两个中心城市之间每日数十次航班中的一部分。 今年4月，南非交通部长西布西索?恩德贝勒(Sibusiso Ndebele)将上述两个城市间的高速铁路列为一项重点。南非各界普遍怀疑，是否有足够多的人感兴趣，使这个项目有理由推进？ 此前唯一承诺建设高速铁路的非洲国家是北非的摩洛哥。该国今年表示，已动工兴建一个项目，将港口城市丹吉尔与750公里外的卡萨布兰卡连接起来，争取在2015年完工。 南非多数商界人士认为，该国在改进其对采矿业生产的大量大宗商品的处理方面，面临的问题要紧迫得多。 同时，数以百万计贫穷的乡镇居民为了前往大城市工作，目前要忍受漫长而辛苦的旅程。该国相当大部分道路网不足以应付目前的交通流量。 恩德贝勒曾表示，约翰内斯堡与德班之间的高速铁路只有在同时承载货运的情况下才具有可行性——这与全球多数高速铁路专门用于客运的情况不同。 Gautrain项目是南非唯一现有的快速客运铁路线，连接约翰内斯堡市中心至比勒陀利亚和该地区的机场，其第一期工程于今年6月通车，整个工程将于明年竣工。 这条铁路上的列车时速为160公里，远低于专用高速铁路时速300公里的标准。 南非大部分长途客运服务本月早些时候曾陷入停运，原因是服务运营商与铁路网拥有者Transnet之间发生纠纷。 译者/和风 |