Since the 1980s, most Sub-Saharan African railways have been experiencing a severe crisis: declining traffic and revenue, lack of market orientation and poor service, continued operation of high-loss passenger services, poor maintenance, gross overstaffing, lack of technical and financial...

The authors review a number of recent innovative rail concessions. Each country has approached its problems differently, and each provides different insights into what can be achieved with concessions. But all the cases show that restructuring and substantial government investment in the design...