Supergroup

05/03/2009

Moving the Gautrain

Following a specialised construction and assembly process in a United Kingdom workshop, the first 15 Gautrain rail cars finally started the long journey home.  

Micor, part of Super Group’s Supply Chain division, in conjunction with Agility (our overseas logistics partner) secured the contract to ship these locomotives from Derby, via Immingham and Antwerp to Durban.  

The first two completed rail cars arrived in Durban harbour on 29 November 2008, with a further two on 8 December. After carefully off-loading each rail car which measures 21 metres in length and weighs 46 tonnes they were transported, by Micor, as an abnormal load to the Gautrain’s depot near Midrand.

The 600km journey took 3 days to complete. Once in Midrand, each rail car will undergo extensive quality and safety testing, including 3,000 km of test running in the standard four-car train set configuration on the Gautrain test track. The body shells and components for the remaining 81 rail cars are simultaneously being “flat packed” into crates and shipped, by Micor, to South Africa for local assembly by Union Carriage in Nigel.