Rail blueprint boosts growth in East Africa

An overnight train ride from Nairobi to the seaside city of Mombasa can easily turn into a nightmare. It is not unusual for passengers to wake up in the morning stuck on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital.

The train, which runs every two days, is supposed to leave Nairobi at 9 pm, but often does not depart until after midnight, and a journey that should take 15 hours can stretch to more than 20 hours.

Though slow and inefficient, the narrow-gauge railway, built by the British 110 years ago, has been a lifeline for Kenya and other East African countries, transporting passengers and goods between the two most important cities in the country.