KENYA's Ministry of Finance has announced it will release an initial $US 252.8m towards the construction of a double-track standard-gauge line from the port of Mombasa to the Kenya/Uganda border town of Malaba with a branch to Kisumu on Lake Victoria.

Huge and largely untapped coal reserves look set to revive the fortunes of Botswana Railways which until recently had been staring extinction in the face, as Paul Ash discovers.

Nigeria's government is investing billions to rehabilitate existing and build new railway infrastructure. Malcolm Dowden, consultant at Charles Russell LLP, considers the model adopted for a revamped Nigerian Railways Corporation and the difficulties it faces in achieving its goals.

For decades Africa has been at the fringes of railway development. However, growing international interest in its rich mineral deposits and the need to better serve swelling urban populations is transforming the continent into one of the world's most dynamic railway markets, as Kevin Smith discovers from the findings of SCI Verkehr's latest market study.

THE Swazi government says it is confident it can raise the Rand 9bn ($US 882m) it needs to fund its share of the Rand 15.9bn Swazilink line between Lothair in South Africa's Mpumalanga province and Sidvokodvo, Swaziland, before construction starts next year.

THE first light rail line was officially opened on July 4 in Constantine, Algeria's third largest city with a population of around 900,000. Commercial services were due to begin on July 5.

RIFT Valley Railways (RVR), the concessionaire operating the 2352km Kenya-Uganda metre-gauge railway, has completed a 10-month project to repair a 73km stretch of the 530km Mombasa – Nairobi main line. Nevertheless, the Kenyan government is dissatisfied with RVR's performance.

TRANSNET Freight Rail (TFR) reported revenues of Rand 50.2bn ($US 4.99bn) for the year ending March 2013, a 9.4% increase year-on-year as the company breached the Rand 50bn mark for the first time.

RIO Tinto has suspended coal export operations on the Sena railway line in Mozambique following security threats to its operations, while the line's primary user Vale, which is continuing to operate trains, says it is monitoring the situation.

RIFT Valley Railways (RVR) says it expects to begin test operation on its northern Uganda branch from Tororo near the Kenyan border to Pakwach on the northern shore of Lake Albert by the end of July, 18 years after services were suspended.