10 April 2008

Pressing Need for Rail Infrastructure Upgrade in Africa...

In an International Herald Tribune article entitled Train to (almost) nowhere in Mauritania the caption for this photo is...
Passengers rushing to board an ore train in Nouadhibou. The journey to Zouérate in remote northwest Mauritania takes 17 hours. (Candace Feit for The New York Times)
There's got to be a better way, perhaps separating the operations of the railway from the ownership of the rails and the mines, thus giving the operator incentive to provide proper passenger & small-freight service and generally dial-up the rail infrastructure. This is a specific situation in Mauritania, but is generalizable to dozens of countries and even more transit corridors.

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