Growth in African Railways to Provide Better Mobility

Online, June 27, 2013 (Newswire.com) - An integrated African rail network interconnected with the continent's ports, roads and waterways is essential for Africa's development. The 'Dream of African Railway Renaissance' includes regional integration, improvement of logistics, an investment plan to recover decades of underinvestment, a corridor approach and a cross-border management. Africa needs a fair competition of transport modes, based on a level play-field. A survey conducted by The Economist stated, South Africa ranked 34 out of 192 countries for infrastructure and 12th for its rail network.

Keeping up with the current growth in Africa, the 2nd Annual African Railway Summit this year will focus on micro managing infrastructure planning and financing, railway concessioning and operation, energy efficiency, multi-modality, freight and passenger transport, urban transport, as well as safety and security. The summit will be held on 5 - 6 November at Johannesburg. Last year the summit supported by Transnet was characterized by high level presentations and panel discussions with key experts from Africa and other continents, it provided a holistic purview on the rail developments in the regions .

In terms of longest rail networks South Africa ranked 11th in 2012/13. The railway network from Tema to Paga in Ghana which is 1500km in length and is being reconstructed and the Tangier-Casablanca High-Speed Rail Line in Morocco, the first high-speed rail line in Africa that is scheduled to be completed in 2015 will be a part of the ongoing regional projects to be discussed in the summit. International perspective on railways will enhance the attendees knowledge on the converging trends and challenges in the urban transport and mobility in Africa. Sustainability for African network rail will be taken up in a panel discussion where the participants can learn about the social, economic & environmental aspects from the railway industry experts.

The forum is opened to all policy makers & government ministry officials, directors of infrastructure maintenance & repair engineers, trade & investment advisors, plant & installation managers, heads of environment, safety & security and others who are eager to learn about and contribute towards the discussion on rail investments in Africa and infrastructure development. Companies sponsoring and exhibiting at the summit will display a wide range of diverse products, industry specialized services and innovations for railways. Africa aims to build a robust railway system in a changing environment and have a safe and cost effective freight and passenger network, make sure you are part of Africa's rail future.

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