Category: Railways

Kenya Railways (KR) and Afristar, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation, have agreed to transfer some of the responsibilities of operating the embattled Standard Gauge Railway years ahead of schedule as part of an effort to reduce the financial burden on ...

It's not clear at this time if the decision to expedite the handover of some SGR responsibilities from Afristar to Kenya Railways is part of the ongoing debt restructuring talks that are purportedly underway between China and Kenya.  Until now, there's ...

Although Chinese loans account for just 11.28% of Nigeria's external debt stock, a senior advisor to President Buhari warned this weekend that figure is likely to go up if/when the China Exim Bank approves the $5.3 billion loan to build the Ibadan-Kano portion of a ...

Kenya's parliament approved funds to extend the Standard Gauge Railway from Naivasha in the Rift Valley all the way to Malaba on the border with Uganda. Several years ago, this extension was known as "SGR Phase 3." President Uhuru Kenyatta's requests for the financing of this phase ...

The investigative series Africa Uncensored broadcast a riveting one-hour documentary on Kenyan national TV last night that explored the country's ballooning national debt. The program highlighted how, as Kenya's largest bilateral creditor owning an estimated 70% (or $6.2 billion) of its ...

Passengers have had a week to try out Nigeria's brand new Chinese-built standard gauge railway that links Lagos to Ibadan. The new service is operating on a limited schedule with just two trains a day but that'll expand to 16 daily departures shortly once construction of the ...

The newest Chinese-built railway in Africa is now officially in service following a Tweet on Monday from the office of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari that launched the new Lagos to Ibadan line. The $1.59 billion standard gauge railway was 

The Chinese-financed and constructed Ethiopia-Djibouti standard gauge railway is bleeding money due to rampant theft and vandalism, according to a report in the Addis Standard newspaper. The situation is now so bad, say company officials, that the trains have been forced to reduce their speed ...

Critics of Kenya's multi-billion-dollar Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) definitely have the upper hand these days as the railway sinks deeper into debt. But George Sunguh, managing editor of African Ports Review, argued today in Business Daily that the skeptics are wrong.

Travelers are making their way back to Kenya's Standard Gauge Railways, especially the line between Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa, according to new data published by the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC). 43,235 people took the Mombasa ...

The Ugandan government is reportedly in talks with the China Exim Bank to secure a $2 billion loan to build a new Standard Gauge Railway, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper.  The head of Uganda Railways Corporation, Stanley ...

Recently we've seen two new pieces of research on Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR,) which make for fascinating – if depressing – reading. They show that the project was doomed from the start by corruption and bad dealing from ...