As commercial exchanges are set to grow across Africa, the ability to move goods quickly, reliably and competitively is becoming a major challenge. In this context, rail is attracting renewed interest, particularly for long-distance flows and cargo that requires high transport capacity.
Rail transport and rail networks: the fundamentals
Rail is, above all, a system. Track, civil engineering structures, signalling, telecommunications, locomotives, wagons and terminals must all work together. A more powerful locomotive will never compensate for degraded track or a saturated terminal. Conversely, rehabilitating a line is pointless if rolling stock is unavailable or volumes do not follow. This is what makes the sector both rich and complex: it combines several engineering disciplines and highly technical skills.
Rail serves two main purposes: passenger transport and freight. For freight, it is particularly relevant when volumes are large, regular and concentrated whether for minerals, agricultural products, hydrocarbons, construction materials, industrial goods or containers. Distance matters, of course, but it is not sufficient to justify rail. Volume availability, traffic frequency, the cost of transshipment and the quality of connections with industrial sites, ports and logistics platforms must all be factored in.
Several actors are involved in rail haulage. The infrastructure manager ensures the safety and availability of the network. The operator assembles trains, organises movements and handles traction. The freight forwarder coordinates the entire chain on behalf of the shipper. This coordination is essential, particularly when freight and passenger trains share the same line.
How does rail freight work?
Moving goods by train is not simply a matter of loading wagons and setting them in motion. The journey is planned well before departure. A path must be reserved, the route and crossing points organised, terminal operations scheduled, and the train adapted to the characteristics of the line. Axle load, siding length, gradients, curves and braking all determine the number of wagons and the traction power required.
For large and regular flows, operators prefer the block train. All wagons carry the same type of cargo containers or hydrocarbons, for example between two defined points. This approach minimises shunting and improves transit times. For dispersed volumes, wagons are grouped at marshalling yards: the service is more flexible but generally slower.
In either case, the rail leg almost always forms part of a broader chain. Terminals manage the transfer to trucks or vessels, while road transport handles collection and final delivery. Performance therefore depends less on rail in isolation than on the quality of its connections with other modes.
Rolling stock suited to each type of freight
Each type of cargo requires specific rolling stock and loading conditions. For smaller volumes, operators may consolidate wagons or consignments from several customers. Depending on its design and line characteristics, a wagon typically carries around 50 to 60 tonnes. The main types include:
hopper wagons, for minerals, cereals, fertilisers or bulk cement;
tank wagons, for hydrocarbons, chemicals and other liquids;
flat wagons or flatcars, for containers, equipment and heavy loads;
insulated or refrigerated wagons, for temperature-controlled products;
container wagons, designed to facilitate transfers between vessel, train and truck.
The advantages of rail freight
Rail’s primary advantage is its capacity for massification. A single train can replace dozens of trucks and carry large volumes over long distances. When flows are sufficient and regular, this capacity helps to better control cost per tonne-kilometre. It also reduces the number of heavy vehicles on major routes, congestion and road wear.
But cost alone does not determine the success of a rail service. Three factors make the real difference: offered capacity, transit time reliability and connections to ports, factories and logistics terminals. A train waiting several hours at a port entrance or during a transshipment quickly loses much of its advantage. Rail performance is therefore measured across the entire journey, not just between two stations.
Rail also offers plannable capacity. For an industry with continuous supply needs, the regularity of departures and visibility over volumes often matters more than a one-off speed gain. This predictability secures supply chains and allows better stock management.
These advantages come with a favourable carbon footprint: rail emits on average six to nine times less CO₂ per tonne-kilometre than road. The sector is also driven by innovation. Electrification, alternative fuels, predictive maintenance, geolocation and digital signalling are progressively improving safety, asset availability and service reliability.
Combined transport: connecting rail, road and maritime
As noted above, rail rarely covers a journey end-to-end. The train handles the long, massified leg, while trucks manage collection, distribution and the last kilometres. The two modes are not in competition: they serve different needs and are most effective when properly coordinated. This requires aligned timetables and efficient terminal operations.
The same logic applies to ports. Efficient rail connections rapidly evacuate containers and bulk cargo inland, reduce occupation of maritime terminals and extend a port’s hinterland.
Terminals therefore play a central role. They manage loading, unloading, storage and the transfer between modes. Their capacity often sets the pace for the entire corridor. Having a good rail line is not enough: trains must be processed efficiently on arrival and the onward transport must be organised quickly.
Rail transport in Africa: dynamics and priorities
African rail networks reflect different histories and functions. Several lines were built to connect mining or agricultural basins to ports. Others have also played an important role in territorial development. The Transgabonais is a case in point: linking the port of Owendo to Franceville, it serves the main towns along the Ogooué river. Originally designed to evacuate manganese and timber, it also opened up the country’s interior and today forms an essential axis for both freight and passenger transport.
Africa’s rail network remains sparse: the African Union estimates it at around 75,000 kilometres, representing approximately 2.5 kilometres of track per 1,000 km², compared to a global average of around 23 kilometres. This limited coverage, combined with sustained underinvestment, partly explains the current dominance of road transport.
The landscape is nonetheless evolving rapidly. In recent years, projects have multiplied: urban mobility with the Dakar TER and Lagos metro networks, Abidjan metro, standard-gauge lines in Kenya and Tanzania. They address different needs metropolitan mobility, port access, interurban transport or heavy freight and demonstrate that rail has regained a place in African public policy.
This does not mean that the priority everywhere is to build new lines. In many cases, rehabilitating existing infrastructure is more relevant: alignments and land rights are already in place, the main population or production centres are already served, and investment can be focused on the sections that genuinely constrain capacity. Projects must therefore start from actual flows, the expected level of service and industrial needs, before dimensioning track, civil structures, signalling and rolling stock.
AGL: a long-standing rail operator in Africa
AGL’s rail expertise has been built around two historic concessions: Sitarail, between Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, and Camrail, in Cameroon, which also contributes to logistics connectivity with Chad. Together, they represent 2,039 kilometres of network and close to 2.5 million tonnes of freight per year. Camrail also operates passenger transport services. The group is also developing short-haul rail activities to connect port terminals, depots and industrial sites to main lines.
For AGL, rail’s value lies in its role within corridors where the group is already present in ports, terminals and land logistics. It enables faster evacuation of goods from ports, reduces pressure on road axes and improves hinterland connectivity. The challenge is therefore not limited to rail traction. It involves organising flow continuity from the vessel through to the inland terminal or the client’s site.
This expertise also rests on long-term infrastructure management. AGL has invested close to 600 million euros in its concessions alongside governments and lenders. In Cameroon, Camrail’s second five-year programme aims to renew and secure the network. At Sitarail, the emergency plan targets the most constrained sections. The memorandum of understanding signed in June 2026 with the Cameroonian government for the Edéa-Kribi-Lolabé-Campo project extends this approach within a framework built jointly with public authorities.
Conclusion
Rail has also become a genuine geopolitical tool. The choice of a corridor is not driven solely by transport logic: it influences port selection, shapes flows of goods and minerals, and can alter economic balances between countries. For a landlocked or resource-producing country, access to several outlets allows it to secure its exports, reduce dependence on a single route and better manage its integration into regional and international trade.
Financing a line provides a means of accompanying access to certain resources, securing supply chains and strengthening the attractiveness of a port or trade route. Rail infrastructure has thus become one of the arenas in which competing financing offers, technical expertise and partnerships with African governments are played out.
The value of rail cannot therefore be assessed solely through its immediate profitability. For governments and financial institutions, a rail line also constitutes a strategic and patrimonial asset: it opens up a territory, supports the development of an industrial sector and offers more options for moving goods. It does, however, require partners capable not only of building or rehabilitating the infrastructure, but also of operating it, maintaining it and preserving its capacity over time.
AGL can contribute to this logic through its rail experience and its presence in ports, terminals and other logistics infrastructure. The challenge is to offer governments operational continuity across the entire corridor, rather than an isolated piece of infrastructure.
In many countries, this will involve less the multiplication of new lines than the rehabilitation of existing networks, based on actual flows, population centres, industrial needs and the expected evolution of trade.