The changed role of rail in Africa overthe last thirty years has seen it move from a situationwhere many of the systems were carrying a high share oftheir country's traffic to one in which their marketshare has declined, their assets have steadily deteriorated,their quality of service has reduced, and they are in manyinstances only a minor contributor to solving the transportproblems of the continent. The first railways south of theSahara were built in South Africa in the 1860's and1870's, with lines heading inland from the ports atCape Town and Durban. The networks in what were then CapeProvince, Natal and Transvaal continued to develop but itwas not until the turn of the twentieth century thatlarge-scale railway development began in other parts of thecontinent. In almost every case, the pattern was the same,with isolated lines heading inland from a port to reach atrading centre or a mine, and a few branch lines then beingbuilt over a period of time. As almost all the lines wereconstructed under colonial administrations, many of thelines were state-owned but several were also constructed asconcessions or, in the case of some mineral developments, bythe mining company as an integral part of its miningoperation. Nevertheless, the rhetoric accompanying some ofthe transactions suggests that many politicians believe, orwant to believe, that the concession award will be theprelude to very substantial investments by theconcessionaires, particularly in infrastructure. To date,this has barely materialized, with most infrastructureimprovements being done with international financialinstitution (IFI) or donor funds. The main issue for mostsub-Saharan railways is whether concessioning is just atemporary solution or whether some alternative approach isneeded to ensure a long-term future for railway systemsproviding acceptable levels of service.
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