Episode 026

Our guest, George is a Professional Engineer by training with a Civil Engineering degree and a Master of Business Administration in Finance. George has a successful track record of delivering management consulting assignments in the transport sector in Canada, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining CPCS, he held management positions at the Canadian National Railway in operations, infrastructure maintenance and financial & strategic planning. Joining CPCS in 2006, George applied his breadth of railway knowledge to wide-ranging rail projects, including feasibility studies, infrastructure and functional designs, condition assessments and rehabilitation plans, upgrading and performance studies, and transaction advisory. He currently leads the CPCS Transport Unit

To find out more about George, please visit his LinkedIn profile.

The interview is broadcast in two parts. In this twenty-sixth episode, George addresses the following key questions:

• What are the characteristics of the current railway network in Africa?
• Why the railway network on the continent dropped from 100,000 km at the beginning of the 20th century to around 75,000 km today?
• What are the main challenges for rail transport development in Africa? How have the challenges changed over time?
• In which situations rail should be prioritized over other transport modes, such as road?
• What trends are we currently seeing in Africa for rail transport development?
• What have been the primary drivers of railway revitalization initiatives in several African countries?