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Article: Rail privatisation rolls across the continent: concessioning of railways in Africa is now more than 10 years old. CPCS Transcom, which assisted in the privatisation of nine railways, looks back at lessons to be learned from recent experience.(Africa)
- Article from:
- International Railway Journal
- Article date:
- March 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AFRICA's railways are undergoing a profound transformation. In the early to mid-1990s, all 34 railways in Africa were owned and operated by their respective governments. Since then, 13 state-run railways have been successfully concessioned to private operators. Another 12 railways are at various stages of their transformation to private management.
Many, if not most, of Africa's railways were suffering deteriorating service levels, growing financial losses, demoralised staff, and falling traffic.
Before the concession of railways in the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso in 1995, for example, traffic had fallen 60% for freight and 80% for passenger since ...