Railroads in Africa

There is an interesting article in The Economist on the boom in railroads in Africa. The map shown above, from that article, suggests that the network in East Africa is growing nicely and will provide some real benefits to the region; railroads are really low cost means of transportation, and will mean better costs from imports and lower shipping costs for many exports from the region. I recall being told in Uganda a decade ago or so that most of the railroads in that country were no longer running. Lets hope that the new arrangements work better than did those left from colonial days.