Rovos Rail has sought to allay concerns about the safety of luxury train travel in Southern Africa in the wake of the operator’s freak collision with a freight train in Zimbabwe in April.
In an exclusive interview with Tourism Update, Rovos Rail COO Tiffany Vos-Thane reflected on the collision on the privately operated Bulawayo Beitbridge Railway (BBR) – the first such incident in 20 years of operation on the line.
The train, carrying 47 tourists and 34 staff members, was en route to Victoria Falls when the collision occurred early on the morning of April 18. While no guests were injured, one staff member passed away in hospital almost three weeks after the accident due to an unexpected medical complication.
Vos-Thane said, while a comprehensive accident report is still being finalised, the incident occurred as a result of miscommunication by BBR operators.
“Somebody made a mistake and miscalculated the timings, which is just so unfortunate, particularly considering that we travel on this line at least twice a week. Having lost one of our staff members, there’s an immense weight on us and we, of course, ask deep questions about how something like this could happen. But we have little control over other entities and we have to put our trust and faith in them. And, overall, they’ve never let us down, except for this one occasion,” Vos-Thane said.
Vos-Thane commended the “incredible” response from emergency teams and government immediately following the accident.
“People were there within minutes and the coordinated response from emergency teams, government and the National Railways of Zimbabwe was better than you could ever imagine.”
Ongoing trauma counselling was arranged for staff, she added.
Vos-Thane said the accident has not impacted demand for the Rovos Rail product.
“We’ve only had one query asking about the BBR line. We haven’t seen anything to show that this had an impact. The major concern at the moment is the general sense of economic uncertainty in the world due to issues such as tariffs and geopolitics,” said Vos-Thane.
The state of railway infrastructure
Responding to concerns about the state of Southern Africa’s railway infrastructure, Vos-Thane asserted that existing issues don’t pose an existential threat to luxury train travel.
“Since the COVID pandemic, there has certainly been an increase in the number of challenges in our railway networks, particularly in South Africa. But there’s a perception that our railway systems are just completely broken. And I don’t think that’s the case,” said Vos-Thane.
Load shedding and cable theft cause extensive delays but improvements in these areas – particularly on the route between Pretoria and Cape Town – are encouraging.
“Post-COVID, that route did a lot of damage to the overall reputation of railway infrastructure in Southern Africa. Delays on that journey impacted a lot of customers from a wide variety of markets so to see an 80% improvement in travel times there is fantastic,” said Vos-Thane.
She said delays are rarely experienced in the nine other countries through which Rovos Rail travels.
“It’s important to emphasise that every single one of the 10 countries we operate in has stringent safety regulations to ensure commuter safety. And we, as an operator, have to get a rail safety permit every year.”
The South African government’s openness to privatisation of the rail network is cause for further optimism, according to Vos-Thane.
“The more private players out there, the better the infrastructure will get. And it’s billions of rands required to get it back to what it used to be. But we’ve seen a major improvement in government’s commitment, energy and approach.”
Vos-Thane said, after building one of the largest privately owned train fleets in Africa – comprising 11 diesel locomotives, eight electric locomotives and four hybrids – Rovos Rail is now focused on enhancing its services.
“We’re not planning to build more trains. Our intention is to focus on quality, refurbishing our current coaches, and making sure that we enhance our product and our design.”
