Investigating the impact of Railway Signalling Performance on Railway Operations & Performance in South Africa

Abstract

The South African railway was once an attractive and thriving industry, serving as a catalyst for socio-economic growth and opportunities (George, Mokoena and Rust, 2018). However, in the past decade, the South African freight rail service has become uncompetitive, unreliable, and ineffectively integrated to other modes of freight transportation (The World Bank, 2023). Railway signalling systems are a vital component of the rail network as it ensures that trains travel safely and the rail network is operating at optimal capacity (Zhang et al., 2021). This research focuses on investigating the critical factors contributing to poor railway signalling performance in South Africa, and the impact that these risk factors have on the performance of railway operations, safety and the organization. A critical literature review revealed a gap in the knowledge and understanding of the systemic factors contributing to poor signalling performance. In the effort to close this literature gap, a holistic approach was adopted to develop a conceptual framework which presented factors identified from literature which affects the performance of railway signalling systems. This research adopted a qualitative research approach to achieve the objectives of this research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with railway signalling and operations professionals. Thematic analysis was used to identify emergent themes from the collected data. The findings identified several factors contributing to poor signalling performance, some of the major identified factors were theft and vandalism, loss of critical skills, lack of investment and budget, managerial issues, ageing infrastructure, inadequate maintenance, human factors, etc. The research findings concluded by outlining the recommendations for future research to address theft and vandalism through collaborative strategies and initiatives, obtaining investments through public-private partnerships, addressing the skills shortage through effective skills retention programs, upgrading the freight rail signalling systems, optimizing the maintenance philosophy, and expanding the research into the passenger rail network to improve railway signalling systems in South Africa.